The Big Three and the Sea of Monsters
by luvWrites
Summary: The gods and the big three children both Roman and Greek along with some heroes from the past continue to read Percy's past and their future.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Thanks so much to all of you guys I know I say this every chapter but I really mean it. You guys are the reason I'm still writing this story! Now then on to the start of the Sea of Monsters WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

DISCLAIMER: again I own nothing (you know if I was a writer and my book had a fan fiction I would get on my page and be like I own everything M***** F******* just to see what people would say and I couldn't get in trouble because I really would own it) (I apologize for my foul language bleeps in that last comment :)

Percy groaned and turned in his bed he blinked a couple of times the darkness slowly faded from his vision. he yawned and stretched in his bed. Percy took in his surroundings as he lay there what happened he asked himself and then as if that one question had been the trigger all his memories seemed to flood back ; he turned so he was lying on his back as he remembered it all. He must have passed out how embarrassing he thought. He sat up pushing his ruffled hair out of his eyes.

"Good morning sleeping beauty" Percy jumped and looked sharply to his left Orion sat in a little chair eating a bowl of what looked like fruit loops. "You know this future cereal stuff is pretty good"

Percy's still slightly asleep mind was confused "wha…" he asked blearily

Orion laughed "nothing, never mind how are you feeling?

"Fine"

"Good you had a lot of us worried"

"It's not like you didn't know that would happen"

"We knew you would feel pain but nothing like that" Orion stated "anyway come on, the others will want to see you're ok" Percy nodded and stood up he yawned once and went to his closet pulling on a pair of blue jean cargo shorts and a white shirt that said 'someday we'll look back on this; laugh, and then change the subject'. Orion laughed at his brother t shirt and shook his head. Percy smiled back and together they left the room.

"By the way, where is everyone?"

"In the dining hall eating"

"Why weren't you with them?"

"I volunteered to stay and wait till you woke up"

"Why I would have been fine"

"Athena suggested one of us be there she said you might be disorientated when you woke and it would be best to have someone there. So here I am."

"Well thanks"

"No problem"

"Hey everyone" he said walking into the dining room, Percy following behind him. Percy smiled and raised his hand in greeting the others waved and although they didn't show it out right Percy could see the relief in his friends eyes and he smiled at them reassuringly and he thought to himself that he was so lucky to have friends like these. He sat down and ate with his friends. Hazel looked at Percy and shook her head

"You have had one hectic life" she said Thalia and Nico laughed

"You haven't seen anything yet" he commented

"I can't wait for this next book I think it's when I come in" Thalia said

"Well I'm glad someone's excited" Percy grumbled slightly

"Are you blushing Percy" hazel asked

"It's just its embarrassing you know with you guys reading my thoughts and all" Percy said Nico snickered and Percy tossed a slight glare his way. After breakfast Percy took hazel and showed her around Olympus hazel marveled at everything

"Wow you know so much about this place its remarkable" Percy's eyes had a deep sadness in them "Its Annabeth isn't it"

"What"

"She's the one you learned all this from"

"Yeah"

"Is she ok I mean last I heard she was on her way to us did something happen" Percy smiled

"No nothing she's with me in the future I guess I just miss her I mean you know me being here"

"I understand" she said dropping the subject the two of them walked in silence Percy thinking of Annabeth and hazel thinking about what Percy had said and she knew something must have happened in the future something Percy wasn't willing to talk about.

"Percy" hazel and Percy turned. Hazel bowed as she caught site of Poseidon he smiled at her Percy was as straight backed as ever.

"Yeah dad"

"Can we talk?"

"I'll just be over there looking at…stuff… bye Percy, Lord Poseidon" and with that hazel walked away at a quick pace. Percy snickered at her quickly retreating back

"She was in hurry" Poseidon laughed

"She's still new to actually talking to gods, you know since they go to camp Jupiter and well…"

"Yes we gods don't communicate with the romans as much as the Greeks"

"Why I mean were all your kids"

"Yes but well if you've been to the camp then you know how the romans treat the gods they don't like a few of us are a bit well angry about that" Percy grimaced he could kind of understand I mean there were plenty gods that the Greeks didn't like but they were all treated with respect the romans on the other hand didn't exactly hold to that "but still they're your family"

"Percy we may be gods but we aren't perfect that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about"

"I know you're not perfect trust me, but dad it's not you…well this you, it's the future you"

"Could you tell me what it is I've done?"

"Dad your great you really are and it's really…"

"Perseus James (I don't know what his middle name is but this sounded good enough) Jackson don't you tell me it's nothing"

"Its complicated dad there is so much happening in the future and everyone thinks I can save them but what if I can't what if I fail?"

"Percy if anyone can do this you can. I have complete faith in you"

"Do you" Poseidon didn't know what to say "because dad I used to think you did, but now I don't know what to think; I was so lost and I prayed so much asking for anything even just a sign that you were listening and there was nothing, and maybe I'm being selfish I mean I know plenty of heroes with worse relationships with their godly parent but I can't help but feel just a little abandoned" Percy trailed off he looked down concentrating on his feet he hadn't meant to say all that and now that it was all out he couldn't look at his dad what would he think would he say he was spoiled or stupid what Percy wasn't expecting was for a warm set of arms to wrap around him and pull him into a hug.

"Percy I'm so sorry for anytime I ever made you feel like you don't matter you are my son and you mean more to me than anything and I know it's hard for you, I can't be there all the time and I'm not allowed to always help you when you need it …"

"Thanks dad" Percy interrupted his dad he didn't need to hear anymore he hugged his dad back and stepped away Poseidon held him by the shoulders looking at his son he felt so proud.

"Percy I may not always be the best at showing it but I am so proud of you and I care so much; so in light of that in this next book please tell me it won't be as bad as the last one"

"Umm sorry dad" Poseidon looked bit pale "I don't think I'll pass out in this one"

"Well at least there's that" the rest of the day was spent hanging out and relaxing. Percy went to sleep content for once in a long while.

*Next day throne room**********************

"Ok who read first last time"

"I did" Hermes stated he grabbed the next book that had no title just a golden number 2 on the spine the opened the book. Hermes took one look at the title and laughed "wow Percy I had no idea, congratulations"

"What" Percy asked sounding confused?

**"My best friend shops for a wedding dress"** Hermes read out.

AN: ok guys I know it's just a short chapter for such a long wait, but I had some trouble trying to write this one I mean Poseidon and Percy have such a complicated relationship and I hope I got it right for the most part; although, I still think it's a little OC but I have already written this scene 4 times and decided that this was the best I was going to get. Anyway then my Wi-Fi stopped working (I officially realized that I am addicted to the internet). But I got it fixed whoop whoop. Also great news I am now renting my first place while I'm at college :D I don't know why I have the need to tell you this but I guess I'm just kind of excited anyway I hope to have the next chapter up soon.

AAN: ok so lately I have been thinking about Percy and the house of hades and I'm one of those peoples who likes to think of what might possibly happen next and something popped into my head and I was thinking about writing a story about it but then I was like I ain't got time for that, but I still wanted to share it so here. It's not really a prediction, because I highly doubt this is what might happen but this is what I might write. Ok so first Percy and Annabeth get out of Tartarus. Annabeth is unconscious because we already know she's hurt and such and everyone's debating on who is going to stay behind and then frank volunteers and says that this is what he was supposed to do and he just knows it everyone objects blah blah blah but in the end frank gets his way. Percy who had been in Tartarus and had met the deity that is Tartarus, makes a deal with him saying that if Percy can get Tartarus Gaia than Tartarus would let frank go and Tartarus agrees so Percy locks frank in Tartarus after swearing on the river Styx to him that he will get him out. Now the gods show up to help (finally) and the battle starts but Percy knows the only way to make the deal possible is making sure Gaia is set free so he has a plan. Hazel finds out and volunteers, Percy doesn't want her to because the plan will mark them as traitors to the gods but hazel doesn't care because she's in love with frank and so they begin the plan. Which is to free Gaia by pouring their blood on the stones of mount Olympus so they each sacrifice some blood and Percy pours it onto the rocks of mount Olympus and the gods think Percy's betrayed them and so do the others well most of the others obviously the other 7 don't believe it and Reyna doesn't want to believe it Octavian's all I told you so and such. And then Percy comes up with a plan to bring Gaia down and he needs Leo to do it (to storm or fire the earth will fall, Gaia's earth and Leos fire) so Percy convinces them that he's still on their side and they fight together and bring Gaia down and then at the end Tartarus comes and takes Gaia and gives frank back like they promised but all is not well Percy got injured by Gaia and is dying. (An oath to keep to the final breathe) (now yes I'm a mean author I would so kill Percy off just because come on their lives are dangerous not everyone can survive and Percy's death would be so unexpected and tragic but I digress and I realize rick riordan will most likely not kill him off so) the other gods who owe it all to Percy once again come together and agree to make Percy into a god so that he doesn't die and later on as Annabeth's reward she too is turned into a god and they live happily ever after. (Just sprinkle some percabeth fluff and gruesome yet memorable demigod deaths in there and tada)(Now like I said at the beginning this isn't a prediction it's just me thinking of different scenarios I know rick riordan will probably not have anything like this happen). I wrote this because I'm getting more and more excited the next book comes out in October it seems so close and I'm so pumped. Well that's it for this chapter please review it would mean the world to me thanks so much guys for your support in this sorry :)


	2. Chapter 2

**"My Best Friend Shops for a Wedding Dress." Hermes read out.**

"Dun dun dun-dun" Apollo sang out

Aphrodite squealed and began to babble incoherently about how romantic it was

"Percy I didn't know you and Annabeth were so serious" Nico whispered Percy blushed pink

"oh shut up"

"So Percy who's the lucky lady"

"It's not a girl" Percy said

"Wow you know Percy for some reason I never pictured you gay"

"What no, god no… its Grover"

"isn't that considered bestiality"

Percy groaned and Apollo and Hermes were laughing their butts off

"Let's begin reading shall we; I'd like to finish this chapter before the day ends" Hera stated dryly

"Kill joy" Hermes said Hera glared but Hermes ignored her

Percy turned to Nico and Thalia "wow never thought I'd feel grateful to Hera"

**My nightmare started like this.**

The demigods winced Percy waved them off "don't worry this one's not to terribly bad especially compared to later ones"

**I was standing on a deserted street in some little beach town. It was the middle of the night. A storm was blowing. Wind and rain ripped at the palm trees along the sidewalk. Pink and yellow stucco buildings lined the street, their windows boarded up. A block away, past a line of hibiscus bushes, the ocean churned.**

Everyone looked at Poseidon who shrugged "what? This is in the future"

"I wonder what he's angry about"

"I don't think it was angry probably just frustrated" Percy said "after all this would be around the time Thalia's tree got poisoned and Chiron was fired Zeus was probably unbearable "

**_Florida, _****I thought. Though I wasn't sure how I knew that. I'd never been to Florida.**

"It's because it a peninsula and basically surrounded by water" Poseidon stated

**Then I heard hooves clattering against the pavement. I turned and saw my friend Grover running for his life.**

"From what" Nico asked Percy gestured toward the book

**Yeah, I said ****_hooves._**

"Do we really have to go through this again?" Apollo sighed

"It's in book format" Athena stated "it's a sequel so it has to recap a bit just in case someone new joined the reading"

"But no one new joined"

"It's just book format Hermes if you will"

**Grover is a satyr. From the waist up, he looks like a typical gangly teenager with a peach-fuzz goatee and a bad case of acne. **

"Yeah yeah can we skip this part?"

"No" Athena snapped

**He walks with a strange limp, but unless you happen to catch him without his pants on (which I don't recommend),**

There was scattered laughter

**You'd never know there was anything un-human about him. Baggy jeans and fake feet hide the fact that he's got furry hindquarters and hooves.**

**Grover had been my best friend in sixth grade. He'd gone on this adventure with me and a girl named Annabeth to save the world, but I hadn't seen him since last July, when he set off alone on a dangerous quest—a quest no satyr had ever returned from.**

"Wow aren't you just all sugar and flowers"

"I was being realistic"

"Realistic pessimistic same thing"

**Anyway, in my dream, Grover was hauling goat tail, holding his human shoes in his hands the way he does when he needs to move fast. He clopped past the little tourist shops and surfboard rental places. The wind bent the palm trees almost to the ground.**

"Hurricane" Thalia commented

"Way to state the obvious" Nico said earning a punch in the arm from Thalia

**Grover was terrified of something behind him. He must've just come from the beach. Wet sand was caked in his fur. He'd escaped from somewhere. He was trying to get away from ... something.**

Thalia looked incredibly nervous for Grover she already knew he was alive but still she was worried all the same they had been through so much together and so help the person who dare hurt him

**A bone-rattling growl cut through the storm. Behind Grover, at the far end of the block, a shadowy figure loomed. It swatted aside a street lamp, which burst in a shower of sparks.**

"That doesn't sound good" Hermes said

"What is it?" hazel asked

"You'll see"

**Grover stumbled, whimpering in fear. He muttered to himself, ****_Have to get away. Have to warn them!_**

"He's such a brave satyr" Hestia said softly

**I couldn't see what was chasing him, but I could hear it muttering and cursing. The ground shook as it got closer. Grover dashed around a street corner and faltered. He'd run into a dead-end courtyard full of shops.**

"Not good not good not good" hazel muttered to herself she had a certain soft spot for fauns and satyrs

** No time to back up. The nearest door had been blown open by the storm. The sign above the darkened display window read: ST. AUGUSTINE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE.**

"And that's where the title comes in"

"Humph" Aphrodite huffed she was hoping for something a bit more romantic and all she got was a goat in a wedding dress

**Grover dashed inside. He dove behind a rack of wedding dresses.**

**The monster's shadow passed in front of the shop. I could smell the thing—a sickening combination of wet sheep wool and rotten meat and that weird sour body odor only monsters can have, like a skunk that's been living off Mexican food.**

Many of the girls turned a sickly shade of green and the guys frowned in disgust

**Grover trembled behind the wedding dresses. The monster's shadow passed on.**

"Is it gone" Thalia asked

**Silence except for the rain. Grover took a deep breath. Maybe the thing was gone.**

**Then lightning flashed. The entire front of the store exploded, and a monstrous voice bellowed: "MIIIIINE!"**

"Well I guess that answers that question" Thalia stated

**I sat bolt upright, shivering in my bed.**

Orion and Theseus looked over at their brother in worry after all they had witnessed their half-brother wake like this multiple times throughout the night although he seemed to be getting better

**There was no storm. No monster.**

"It was all in your mind" Thalia teased

"How creepy would it be if this was all just a mental illusion and we were all just patients in a psychiatric hospital" Nico stated

Everyone just stared at him "Nico that's umm… creepy"

"Well you never know do ya"

"Moving on" Hermes stated and kept reading

**Morning sunlight filtered through my bedroom window.**

**I thought I saw a shadow flicker across the glass—a humanlike shape.**

Percy blushed as he remembered who exactly that had been

"Looks like you got yourself a stalker"

"She's not a stalker" Percy defended

"Ooh she" Aphrodite said sounding interested Percy looked to Hermes silently begging him to continue reading Hermes complied

**But then there was a knock on my bed room door—my mom called: "Percy, you're going to be late"—and the shadow at the window disappeared.**

**Aphrodite's interest was peaked who was this girl **

**It must've been my imagination. A fifth-story window with a rickety old fire escape ... there couldn't have been anyone out there.**

Everyone now found themselves interested in who it was as well Athena had a bad feeling she wasn't going to enjoy who it was watching Percy

**"Come on, dear," my mother called again. "Last day of school. You should be excited! You've almost made it!"**

"Wow wait a minute you're telling me you got kicked out of school on the last day" Nico asked incredulously

"It's a gift" Percy responded

"more like a curse" Athena stated

**"Coming," I managed.**

**I felt under my pillow. My fingers closed reassuringly around the ballpoint pen I always slept with. I brought it out, studied the Ancient Greek writing engraved on the side: ****_Anaklusmos. _****Riptide.**

Hercules bristled at the reminder that this pathetic boy was using his sword it was just so completely demeaning

**I thought about uncapping it, but something held me back. I hadn't used Riptide for so long….**

"Really you spent a year away from camp with a scent as powerful as yours that incredibly lucky" Hermes said

"But knowing Percy and his previous luck that doesn't seem to be the case" Hephaestus added momentarily looing up from what looked like a knot of complicated wires he was tinkering with

"It wasn't luck just coincidence" Percy answered Thalia looked questioningly at Percy who mouthed back Tyson understanding dawned on her face

**Besides, my mom had made me promise not to use deadly weapons in the apartment after I'd swung a javelin the wrong way and taken out her china cabinet.**

"Really Percy really" Thalia laughed out loud

Percy shuddered "my mom was so angry it was awful"

"You're scared of your mom after all that you went through" Jason asked laughter in his voice

"Trust me" Percy replied in all seriousness "my mom is not someone you want to get angry I would rather fight monsters then face my mom when she's angry"

"It's terrifying" Nico and Thalia nodded they had gotten in major trouble when she had come home to a destroyed house when the three of them had gotten into a fight

**I put Anaklusmos on my nightstand and dragged myself out of bed.**

**I got dressed as quickly as I could. I tried not to think about my nightmare or monsters or the shadow at my window.**

Aphrodite squealed "I wonder if said shadow was watching you dress"

Percy blushed but denied it "of course not she's not like that"

**_Have to get away. Have to warn them!_**

**What had Grover meant?**

"That's something we'd all like to know" Hestia said

**I made a three-fingered claw over my heart and pushed outward—an ancient gesture Grover had once taught me for warding off evil.**

**The dream couldn't have been real.**

"Really Percy after all your dreams last year you really think that"

"It was more of a hope I didn't want Grover to be in danger"

**Last day of school. My mom was right, I should have been excited. For the first time in my life, I'd almost made it an entire year without getting expelled.**

"Jinxed it"

**No weird accidents. No fights in the classroom. No teachers turning into monsters and trying to kill me with poisoned cafeteria food or exploding homework. **

"You had a monster actually give you exploding homework"

"It was just an example"

**Tomorrow, I'd be on my way to my favorite place in the world—Camp Half-Blood.**

**Only one more day to go. Surely even I couldn't mess that up.**

There were multiple snorts throughout the room and Percy pouted

**As usual, I didn't have a clue how wrong I was.**

"Well at least you admit it"

**My mom made blue waffles and blue eggs for breakfast. She's funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it's her way of saying anything is possible. Percy can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that.**

"Little miracles I think you passing seventh grade is a pretty big miracle"

"Thanks Thals" Percy said sarcastically

**I ate at the kitchen table while my mom washed dishes. She was dressed in her work uniform—a starry blue skirt and a red-and-white striped blouse she wore to sell candy at Sweet on America. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.**

"She's so great" Nico and Thalia said smiling

"Yup she's the best"

**The waffles tasted great, but I guess I wasn't digging in like I usually did. My mom looked over and frowned. "Percy, are you all right?"**

"You really do eat a lot I remember you ate like 3 pizzas when you were at camp Jupiter"

"Yeah sounds like Percy he's a vacuum cleaner"

"I'm a teenage guy and I use a lot of energy fighting monsters or training it's only natural that I eat a lot" Percy defended himself

**"Yeah ... fine."**

**But she could always tell when something was bothering me. She dried her hands and sat down across from me. "School, or ..."**

"Demigod stuff" Thalia finished for her

**She didn't need to finish. I knew what she was asking.**

**"I think Grover's in trouble," I said, and I told her about my dream.**

**She pursed her lips. We didn't talk much about the ****_other _****part of my life. We tried to live as normally as possible, but my mom knew all about Grover.**

"Well duh" Thalia stated

**"I wouldn't be too worried, dear," she said. "Grover is a big satyr now. If there were a problem, I'm sure we would've heard from ... from camp..." Her shoulders tensed as she said the word ****_camp._**

"What's going on in camp" Hermes asked

"Who cares" Mr. D grumbled the gods with children there glared at him he ignored their looks

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"Nothing," she said. "I'll tell you what. This afternoon we'll celebrate the end of school. I'll take you and Tyson to Rockefeller Center—to that skateboard shop you like."**

"Who's Tyson?"

"My best friend" Percy stated giving nothing away

**Oh, man, that was tempting. We were always struggling with money. Between my mom's night classes and my private school tuition, we could never afford to do special stuff like shop for a skateboard. But something in her voice bothered me.**

"Of course she's trying to bribe you and change the subject at the same time very crafty" Hermes said

**"Wait a minute," I said. "I thought we were packing me up for camp tonight."**

**She twisted her dishrag. "Ah, dear, about that ... I got a message from Chiron last night."**

**The atmosphere was intense everyone wanted to know just what exactly was going on at camp**

**My heart sank. Chiron was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood. He wouldn't contact us unless something serious was going on. "What did he say?"**

**"He thinks ... it might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone."**

"Not safe" Nico questioned "how could camp half-blood not be safe it like the only safe place for us"

"Is not"

"The only safe place for Greeks then"

**_"Postpone? _****Mom, how could it not be ****_safe_****? I'm a half-blood! It's like the only safe place on earth for me!"**

"See Percy agrees"

"That isn't the best argument considering its Percy"

"Hey"

"Sorry Perce but it's true"

**"Usually, dear. But with the problems they're having—"**

"What problems"

**"****_What _****problems?"**

"Echo" Hermes laughed

**"Percy ... I'm very, very sorry. I was hoping to talk to you about it this afternoon. I can't explain it all now. I'm not even sure Chiron can. Everything happened so suddenly."**

"What happened will this book just hurry up with it?"

"If you would shut up and stop commenting we might actually find out" Artemis snapped at her brother

**My mind was reeling. How could I ****_not _****go to camp? I wanted to ask a million questions, but just then the kitchen clock chimed the half-hour.**

**My mom looked almost relieved. "Seven-thirty, dear. You should go. Tyson will be waiting."**

**"But—"**

**"Percy, we'll talk this afternoon. Go on to school."**

"That has got to be frustrating"

"You have no idea"

**That was the last thing I wanted to do, but my mom had this fragile look in her eyes—a kind of warning, like if I pushed her too hard she'd start to cry.**

"Girls using their tears against you since the beginning of time" Apollo announced the men agreed and the women glared

**Besides, she was right about my friend Tyson. I had to meet him at the subway station on time or he'd get upset. He was scared of traveling underground alone.**

"Poor boy"

"Something is odd about your friend why do I get the feeling he's more than what he seems"

"He is" Percy stated a smile on his face

**I gathered up my stuff, but I stopped in the doorway. "Mom, this problem at camp. Does it... could it have anything to do with my dream about Grover?"**

**She wouldn't meet my eyes. "We'll talk this afternoon, dear. I'll explain ... as much as I can."**

**Reluctantly, I told her good-bye. I jogged downstairs to catch the Number Two train.**

**I didn't know it at the time, but my mom and I would never get to have our afternoon talk.**

**In fact, I wouldn't be seeing home for a long, long time.**

"Wonderful" Poseidon said he rubbed his temples in worry

**As I stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight—a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one.**

"More like nobody' Percy smiled to himself

"Thalia Percy's lost it" Nico whispered Percy punched him playfully

**Then it rippled and vanished.**

"That's it guys the end of the chapter who's next"

"I was" Athena stated holding out her hand for the book and using her magic goddess powers to summon the book to her

AN: OK that's the end of the first chapter of the sea of monsters wooooo! That's exciting! I hoped you like the first chapter in 2 weeks I'll be moving into my new house and I won't have Wi-Fi for a little while so my updates will stop but I'll keep writing so when I get Wi-Fi I'll be ready to update. I'll tell you when that will be happening exactly just so you know. Now that that's over I ask that you hit the little review button at the bottom of the screen.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: ok I went through the chapter because I had no idea what you were talking about when you said part of it was bolded, so I went back to my word document but nothing was wrong with it so then I looked at the chapter downloaded to fanfiction and you were right random bits were bolded and I was like ok maybe I pushed something when I was uploading it so I tried it again and the same thing happened. so I ended up having to go through the whole thing manually on the fanfiction site, but I think I finally got everything. anyway the next chapter should be out soon I'm already started on it so YAY! thanks for all your reviews and sorry about that


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Thanks for all your reviews I'm sorry about the AN I Know it's annoying, I always used to hate it when other authors used to do that, but know that I'm writing my own stories I feel that their sometimes necessary. Anyway I recently read a sneak peak of The House of Hades and now I'm super pumped to read the actual book but now I have to wait! Grr I hate sneak peaks why do I put myself through this torture.

DISCLAIMER: I own nada but I wish I did then I would know what the heck was going to happen but sadly I don't

**"I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals," **Athenaread.

**My day started normal. Or as normal as it ever gets at Meriwether College Prep.**

**See, it's this "progressive" school in downtown Manhattan, which means we sit on beanbag chairs instead of at desks, and we don't get grades, and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.**

"That is an awesome school" Nico said "why couldn't our dad put us in a school like that instead we got stupid military school"

"That isn't a school it's a disgrace to learning" Athena stated

"Calm down owl head" Poseidon stated getting a glare from Athena

**That's all cool with me. I mean, I'm ADHD and dyslexic, like most half-bloods, so I'd never done that great in regular schools even before they kicked me out.**

Athena shook her head sighing this boy was incredibly frustrating

** The only bad thing about Meriwether was that the teachers always looked on the bright side of things, and the kids weren't always ... well, bright.**

"So their stupid"

"You can be both stupid and bright look at Apollo he manages it just fine" Artemis commented

Apollo pouted "come on sis you could at least try being nice to me"

"As long as your…well… you, then no I can't" Artemis stated and turned to Athena missing the hurt that flashed momentarily across Apollo's face

**Take my first class today: English. The whole middle school had read this book called Lord of the Flies, where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho.**

"Sounds entertaining" Mr. D smiled evilly

"Dionysus if you drive the children at camp psycho then I will double the time limit of your punishment" Zeus stated

"Fine" Mr.D sighed

**So for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the break yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision to see what would happen.**

"Oh that's a wonderful idea" Hera stated "leave a bunch of seventh grades alone to kill each other"

"We weren't quite that bad and there were 8th graders too not just seventh graders" Percy commented

"It's still idiotic and completely irresponsible"

** What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders, two pebble fights, and a full-tackle basketball game.**

Percy smiled "the basketball game was pretty fun" he admitted

"Why did you win?"

"I managed to accidentally punch matt Sloan during said activity"

"Who's Matt Sloan?"

"I'm sure if you keep reading you'll find out"

**The school bully, Matt Sloan,**

"See what did I tell you"

"Yes your amazing maybe you could take Rachel's place at camp" Thalia remarked sarcastically Percy stuck his tongue out at her

** led most of those activities.**

**Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was. He had eyes like a pit bull, and shaggy black hair, and he always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to see how little he cared about his family's money.**

"Basically he's just showing off how rich he is just in a more subtle way well as subtle as a preteen boy can be"

**One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken his daddy's Porsche for a joyride and run into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign.**

"How ironic" Hestia stated

"What an idiot boy" Artemis commented

**Anyway, Sloan was giving everybody wedgies until he made the mistake of trying it on my friend Tyson.**

"Why was it a mistake didn't you say earlier that Tyson was easily scared and cried a lot I mean not to be rude but wouldn't he be an easy target"

**Tyson was the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as my mom and I could figure, he'd been abandoned by his parents when he was very young, probably because he was so ... different.**

"That's terrible"

"Mortals are despicable" Hera said Zeus shook his head at his wife honestly he thought this woman was bipolar one minute mortals were ok the next they were scum

"Not all mortals are like that, it's like saying all heroes are the same" Percy said he caught Mr. D's eye as he said the last part and Mr.D glared at him wondering how this boy would know about how he felt. "Besides it wasn't mortals who did this to him" Percy finished to himself

**He was six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection.**

"See easy target" Apollo reaffirmed his earlier statement Percy glared at him and Apollo held up his hands "hey the truth hurts"

"Tysons a lot more than you think he is"

**His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. I couldn't tell you what color his eyes were,**

**because I could never make myself look higher than his crooked teeth. **

"Urgh and very ugly" Aphrodite gagged

Hestia rolled her eyes at her niece (and yes I know the most common myth is that Aphrodite was born from Uranus's blood and junk, but there's another myth from the Illiad that says she's the daughter of Zeus and Dione and that's the one I'm going with.) she however was concentrating on other matters like how Percy couldn't look higher than his teeth that wasn't normal no matter how ugly a kid was, her first thought was the mist and if that was the case then what exactly was Tyson

**His voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid—I guess because he'd never gone to school before coming to Meriwether. He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it. He smelled like a New York City alleyway, because that's where he lived, in a cardboard refrigerator box off 72nd Street.**

"That's terrible" Hestia said sadly whatever Tyson was he seemed nice and he didn't deserve that

"I know right I mean flannel is bad enough but plaid flannel is just gross" Aphrodite commented

**Meriwether Prep had adopted him as a community service project so all the students could feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, most of them couldn't stand Tyson.**

"Please they're a bunch of rich kids, its less to make the students feel good and more to make themselves look good in the community" Thalia said a scowl on her face

** Once they discovered he was a big softie, despite his massive strength and his scary looks, they made themselves feel good by picking on him. I was pretty much his only friend, which meant he was my only friend.**

"Good on you Percy" Hestia said Poseidon smiled at his son proudly

Artemis regarded the boy her heart was telling her that this boy was different look at what he did for his friends but her head refused to be swayed

**My mom had complained to the school a million times that they weren't doing enough to help him. She'd called social services, but nothing ever seemed to happen. The social workers claimed Tyson didn't exist.**

This solidified Hestia's thought that Tyson wasn't human Athena had the same thoughts as she tried to figure out exactly what Tyson was

** They swore up and down that they'd visited the alley we described and couldn't find him, though how you miss a giant kid living in a refrigerator box, I don't know.**

"He's definitely a monster" Athena stated

"Yeah we figured that" Hermes stated Athena rolled her eyes

"Percy you're pretty lucky he was a young monster and can't really do too much damage"

**Anyway, Matt Sloan snuck up behind him and tried to give him a wedgie, and Tyson panicked. He swatted Sloan away a little too hard. Sloan flew fifteen feet and got tangled in the little kids' tire swing.**

"Not much damage" Apollo looked to Hermes

"Well to demigods anyway" Hermes corrected

"Serves that boy right" Hestia stated she didn't like this Matt Sloan Artemis fully agreed but for more simple reasons

**"You freak!" Sloan yelled. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box!"**

Hestia looked angry

"He's not a freak" Thalia stated angrily

"Tyson should have hit him harder" Nico bit out

Percy was biting his lip in anger Matt Sloan was such an a**

**Tyson started sobbing. He sat down on the jungle gym so hard he bent the bar, and buried his head in his hands.**

Thalia was pissed Tyson was so nice and sweet he didn't deserve to be treated so cruelly

**"Take it back, Sloan!" I shouted.**

**Sloan just sneered at me. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might have friends if you weren't always sticking up for that freak."**

Percy scoffed "I'd rather not have friends if my only options are people like you"

Poseidon felt proud and Hestia was smiling at the boy who looked so defiant

**I balled my fists. I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt. "He's not a freak.**

Thalia sighed "I'm done for Nico its official I think like Percy"

"I'll be here for you Thals don't worry" Nico said overly dramatic Percy rolled he's eyes at the two of them

**He's just..."**

"A monster child who's incredibly sweet" Hestia stated

"And completely awesome" Percy added

**I tried to think of the right thing to say, but Sloan wasn't listening. He and his big ugly friends were too busy laughing. I wondered if it were my imagination, or if Sloan had more goons hanging around him than usual. I was used to seeing him with two or three, but today he had like, half a dozen more, and I was pretty sure I'd never seen them before.**

"They can't be new kids it's the last day of school" Orion stated

"Their obviously monsters stupid it foreshadowed this in the last chapter" Theseus corrected Orion glared when his brother called him stupid

**"Just wait till PE, Jackson," Sloan called. "You are so dead."**

"If this guy could kill Percy then I'm still a tree"

"Well…" Nico started

"Shut up Nico" Thalia interrupted him Nico stuck out his tongue at her

**When first period ended, our English teacher, Mr. de Milo, came outside to inspect the carnage. He pronounced that we'd understood Lord of the Flies perfectly. We all passed his course, and we should never, never grow up to be violent people.**

"Too late Percy's already violent" Thalia stated

"That's like the kettle calling the pot black" Percy stated

"I'm not that violent"

"You so are" Nico added

"Says Mr. Emo himself" Thalia shot at Nico

"I'm not emo"

"All of you shut it" Jason said the three had the decency to at least look a bit abashed

**Matt Sloan nodded earnestly, and then gave me a chip-toothed grin.**

**I had to promise to buy Tyson an extra peanut butter sandwich at lunch to get him to stop sobbing.**

Thalia Nico and Percy all burst out laughing remembering Tysons battle cry everyone else looked at them oddly "it wasn't that funny" Hermes said

**"I ... I am a freak?" he asked me.**

**"No," I promised, gritting my teeth. "Matt Sloan is the freak."**

"Damn straight" Nico agreed

**Tyson sniffled. "You are a good friend. Miss you next year if ... if I can't ..."**

"Aww" the women awed except Artemis who felt bad for the boy but he was still a boy and not worth her trouble

**His voice trembled. I realized he didn't know if he'd be invited back next year for the community service project. I wondered if the headmaster had even bothered talking to him about it.**

**"Don't worry, big guy," I managed. "Everything's going to be fine."**

"You're a really great brother Percy" Thalia stated

Percy winced she wouldn't be thinking that for long. He thought about how awful he had been to Tyson Thalia didn't notice this but Jason who had been glaring at Percy when Thalia had set that to him had and he was wondering if perfect Percy wasn't actually so perfect

**Tyson gave me such a grateful look I felt like a big liar. How could I promise a kid like him that anything would be fine?**

Hazel, Nico, and Thalia looked down they all relied on Percy so much, wanting him to make promises and help make them feel better, but it must have been hard all that pressure he had to endure trying to tell so many demigods that it would be all right even knowing that it might not be.

**Our next exam was science. Mrs. Tesla **

"Mrs. Tesla really" Athena laughed

"What" Poseidon asked confused

"Tesla coils you know science and she's a science teacher"

"You're such a nerd" Poseidon stated

"And you're an illiterate idiot"

"Enough both of you" Zeus stated

**told us that we had to mix chemicals until we succeeded in making something explode, Tyson was my lab partner. His hands were way too big for the tiny vials we were supposed to use. He accidentally knocked a tray of chemicals off the counter and made an orange mushroom cloud in the trash can.**

"Nice" Nico stated

"That's completely dangerous why would she give students such dangerous chemicals" Athena said

**After Mrs. Tesla evacuated the lab and called the hazardous waste removal squad, she praised Tyson and me for being natural chemists. We were the first ones who'd ever aced her exam in under thirty seconds.**

"Urgh" Athena huffed in irritation "what kind of idiotic school is this"

"A pretty damn awesome one" Nico said to Percy who snickered

**I was glad the morning went fast, because it kept me from thinking too much about my problems. I couldn't stand the idea that something might be wrong at camp. Even worse, I couldn't shake the memory of my bad dream. I had a terrible feeling that Grover was in danger.**

This brought the atmosphere down as people were reminded of the trouble at camp and whatever had become of Grover

**In social studies, while we were drawing latitude/longitude maps, I opened my notebook and stared at the photo inside—my friend Annabeth**

Aphrodite squealed loudly "that is so adorable"

Percy was blushing "it wasn't like that"

"Sure it wasn't, oh it's just so cute don't you think dear" she asked Ares

"Sure" he stated Hermes and Apollo laughed at Ares who glared back at them. Aphrodite ignored them and continued cooing over how cute it was. Percy was as red as a tomato

**on vacation in Washington, D.C. She was wearing jeans and a denim jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled back in a bandanna. She was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial with her arms crossed, looking extremely pleased with herself, like she'd personally designed the place.**

"That's Annabeth for you"

Athena smiled at her daughter she would be a great architect one day Athena had no doubt

**See, Annabeth wants to be an architect when she grows up, so she's always visiting famous monuments and stuff. She's weird that way.**

"How is that weird" Athena scoffed "if anything its inspiring"

"Well its weird to me, I'm not really all that interested in museums and monuments"

"Why not" Hermes asked

"Besides that their boring" Athena huffed but Percy continued "I don't exactly have the best time at those kinds of places and normally end up almost dying"

"Good reason"

**She'd e-mailed me the picture after spring break, and every once in a while I'd look at it just to remind myself she was real and Camp Half-Blood hadn't just been my imagination.**

"See I told you it wasn't like that"

"Whatever you say dear"

**I wished Annabeth were here. She'd know what to make of my dream. I'd never admit it to her, but she was smarter than me,**

"I don't think you have to admit it" Thalia stated "I'm pretty sure it's a common fact"

"Hey I'm smart… ish"

"You keep telling yourself that Perce" Nico said smiling Hazel laughed at the three cousins she was slowly starting to become part of their group and she hoped by the end shed feel closer to them and be able to joke freely like that

**even if she was annoying sometimes.**

"Annabeth is not annoying you're just too dumb to understand her" Athena stated

"My son isn't dumb"

"It's not his fault Athena he's a boy after all you can't expect much"

"Hey" the men in the room stated

**I was about to close my notebook when Matt Sloan reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings.**

"Hey don't take the picture of his love that's just cruel" Aphrodite said

**"Hey!" I protested.**

**Sloan checked out the picture and his eyes got wide. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is not your_"**

"Nope well not yet anyway" Thalia teased so only the demigods (excluding the ones from the past) could hear her

**"Give it back!" My ears felt hot.**

"Aww isn't that adorable I just love this chapter it's so cute"

**Sloan handed the photo to his ugly buddies, who snickered and started ripping it up to make spit wads. They were new kids who must've been visiting, because they were all wearing those stupid HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the admissions office. They must've had a weird sense of humor, too, because they'd all filled in strange names like: MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human beings had names like that.**

"No human beings do" Apollo stressed the words human

"Yes we get it Apollo their not human obviously we've already been through this"

"Jeez sis try to have a little sense of humor"

"Am I the only one who disagrees here" Hermes stated "I think Joe bob could be a human name I mean if a person can be named Billy bob then why not Joe bob"

"Good point" Apollo agreed

Artemis rolled her eyes

**"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged, like that was supposed to scare me. "I bet they can pay the tuition, too, unlike your retard friend."**

Percy muttered some colorful curse words under his breathe unfortunately for him Thalia heard him and gave him a good zap for it "ouch Thalia come on was that really necessary I mean we all know you were thinking the same thing" Thalia ignored him

**"He's not retarded." I had to try really, really hard not to punch Sloan in the face.**

"Should have" Ares smirked

**"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period."**

Poseidon glared; this kid was becoming quite irritating. The other demigods except Hercules and Jason were thinking the same thing.

**His huge buddies chewed up my photo. I wanted to pulverize them, but I was under strict orders from Chiron never to take my anger out on regular mortals, no matter how obnoxious they were. I had to save my fighting for monsters.**

"Good thing they're monsters then" Apollo laughed

**Still, part of me thought, if Sloan only knew who I really was …**

"He'd think you were crazy" Nico stated

**The bell rang.**

**As Tyson and I were leaving class, a girl's voice whispered, "Percy!"**

"Oh la la a girl who could it be" Aphrodite leaned forward in her seat

**I looked around the locker area, but nobody was paying me any attention. Like any girl at Meriwether would ever be caught dead calling my name.**

"That's not true your cute and sweet" Aphrodite seemed to be consoling Percy "although I am disappointed that it wasn't some mortal love interest it would have made your journey with Annabeth much more fun" she thought about it for a while "hmm I'll have to make that happen now after all what's better than a good old fashioned love triangle"

Percy blushed Aphrodite wasn't far off he thought about the fiasco with Rachel and inwardly groaned he'd have to remember earplugs during those scenes Aphrodite would be unbearable

**Before I had time to consider whether or not I'd been imagining things, a crowd of kids rushed for the gym, carrying Tyson and me along with them. It was time for PE. Our coach had promised us a free-for-all dodgeball game, and Matt Sloan had promised to kill me.**

"Another day in my life"

"What" Theseus Asked?

"A lot of people and monsters and immortal beings have promised to kill me in my life it's a pretty normal occurrence"

"I worry about you" Theseus stated in concern for his younger brothers life and sanity

**The gym uniform at Meriwether is sky blue shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts. Fortunately, we did most of our athletic stuff inside, so we didn't have to jog through Tribeca looking like a bunch of boot-camp hippie children.**

There was scattered laughter throughout the room

**I changed as quickly as I could in the locker room because I didn't want to deal with Sloan. I was about to leave when Tyson called, "Percy?"**

**He hadn't changed yet. He was standing by the weight room door, clutching his gym clothes. "Will you ... uh ..."**

**"Oh. Yeah." I tried not to sound aggravated about it. "Yeah, sure, man."**

"Perseus help your friend and be happy about it" Hestia scolded Percy nodded

Artemis didn't look too shocked she knew Percy was just like any other man he tried to seem good and just but in reality he was just another pig of a man

**Tyson ducked inside the weight room. I stood guard outside the door while he changed. I felt kind of awkward doing this, but he asked me to most days. I think it's because he's completely hairy and he's got weird scars on his back that I've never had the courage to ask him about.**

"Poor boy" Hestia stated she felt so bad for him and she hoped things got better for him monster or not he deserved it

**Anyway, I'd learned the hard way that if people teased Tyson while he was dressing out, he'd get upset and start ripping the doors off lockers.**

"Cool" Nico stated

Hazel hit Nico round the head "not cool that's sad"

**When we got into the gym, Coach Nunley was sitting at his little desk reading Sports. He was about a million years old, with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of gray hair. He reminded me of the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood—which was a shriveled-up mummy—except Coach Nunley moved a lot less and he never billowed green smoke.**

"He moved less than a dead mummy" Thalia questioned

"Yeah"

"Wow he's pathetic"

"And incredibly ugly" Aphrodite said "I mean eww what an incredibly unflattering description"

"Wow big words for a bimbo" Artemis said just low enough so Aphrodite wouldn't hear her

**Matt Sloan said, "Coach, can I be captain?"**

**"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."**

"This school its terrible ill have to find it and make sure it gets proper staff"

"No a perfectly awesome school and you're going to make it boring" Nico yelled dramatically Athena glared and hades looked slightly concerned for his sons sanity; he must have gotten his dramatics from his uncle or something hades thought.

**Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made me the other team's captain, but it didn't matter who I picked, because all the jocks and the popular kids moved over to Sloan's side. So did the big group of visitors.**

"That's completely unfair" Hazel stated

"That's life" Jason stated "you work with what you've got"

"I know that but still" Hazel replied

**On my side I had Tyson, Corey Bailer the computer geek, Raj **(every time I hear this name I automatically think big bang theory)** Mandali the calculus whiz, and a half dozen other kids who always got harassed by Sloan and his gang. Normally I would've been okay with just Tyson—he was worth half a team all by himself—but the visitors on Sloan's team were almost as tall and strong-looking as Tyson, and there were six of them.**

"Even so with a good battle strategy you could still win no matter how many there are"

"True but I'm not exactly the best at the battle strategy part I'm more of the improvise and go with the flow sort of fighter"

Jason shook his head Percy would never survive camp Jupiter with that sort of thinking

**Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.**

**"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."**

"How did you not figure out he was a monster from that"

"Because I assumed Tyson was human and humans don't smell monsters" Percy stated

"That and its Percy come on he's a bit slow"

"Haha very funny"

**I looked at him. "What smells funny?" Because I didn't figure he was talking about himself.**

"Percy" Hestia scolded also throwing a glare a Hermes and Apollo who were snickering

"Sorry"

**"Them." Tyson pointed at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."**

**The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help wondering where they were from. Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks.**

"Or you know Tartarus" Thalia stated

Percy winced slightly calming himself Nico put a hand on his arm and Percy relaxed he wasn't there he was here in Olympus surrounded by friends… well mostly

**Sloan blew the coach's whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On my side, Raj Mandali yelled something in Urdu, probably "I have to go potty!" and ran for the exit. Corey Bailer tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of my team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.**

"Cowards they deserve death" Ares yelled out "fight like men"

"Honestly Ares do you even listen to yourself when you speak"

**"Tyson," I said. "Let's g—"**

**A ball slammed into my gut. I sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor. The other team exploded in laughter.**

Nico tried to hold in a laugh but he couldn't and it burst out

"What" Percy asked after he regained his breathe from the momentary burst of pain

"I was just imagining your face when that happened and in my mind it's so comical and funny"

**My eyesight was fuzzy. I felt like I'd just gotten the Heimlich maneuver from a gorilla. I couldn't believe anybody could throw that hard.**

"Ouch" Hazel muttered to herself at the thought of it (I'm one of those people who says ouch when people in movies or books get hurt my friends find it hilarious)

**Tyson yelled, "Percy, duck!"**

**I rolled as another dodgeball whistled past my ear at the speed of sound.**

"That's complete exaggeration" Athena stated

"Its descriptive writing you should know that" Percy stated

"Ooooo" Hermes and Apollo ooed

Poseidon smiled "nice one son"

Percy smiled at his dad and Hestia looked at the two it seems the two had finally had that talk and Poseidon was beginning to change ever so slightly

**Whooom!**

**It hit the wall mat, and Corey Bailer yelped.**

**"Hey!" I yelled at Sloan's team. "You could kill some body!"**

"They are monsters" Nico pointed out

"I didn't know that at the time" Percy argued

**The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at me evilly. Somehow, he looked a lot bigger now ... even taller than Tyson. His biceps bulged beneath his T-shirt. "I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!"**

Both Perseus's flinched; Perseus because it was odd hearing his name and knowing they were talking about someone else, and Percy because he was never called by Perseus and hearing it was always a bit weird

**The way he said my name sent a chill down my back. Nobody called me Perseus except those who knew my true identity.**

"True identity" Nico laughed "who are you superman"

"Aqua man would have been a more appropriate superhero in that scenario"

"Please don't compare me to aqua man he's the worst superhero ever and his powers suck. I'm way more awesome then him"

"Wow Percy way to be modest"

"Hey come on I'm entitled to some brag rights" Percy defended

"Egotistical boy" Artemis mumbled

** Friends ... and enemies.**

**What had Tyson said? They smell funny.**

**Monsters.**

"Finally we get there"

"Just be thankful it didn't take him as long as it did for him to process Grover was a satyr in the first book"

"If it had he'd be dead"

"Hardy har very funny" Percy said sarcastically

**All around Matt Sloan, the visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids. They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.**

"Lastrygonians" Athena stated

"Wonderful" Poseidon stated "just great" Poseidon tried to keep calm Percy could handle himself as he'd seen in the last book, he'd be fine

**Matt Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who …"**

"Well at least he notices something the mist must be allowing him to somewhat see them"

**The other kids on his team started screaming and backing toward the exit, but the giant named Marrow Sucker threw a ball with deadly accuracy. It streaked past Raj Mandali just as he was about to leave and hit the door, slamming it shut like magic.**

"Less magic more force from the dodgeball" Athena stated

"Whatever was Percy's clever response"

** Raj and some of the other kids banged on it desperately but it wouldn't budge.**

**"Let them go!" I yelled at the giants.**

"That isn't going to work their cannibals their not just after you they want lunch" Athena said

"Eww that's so gross" Aphrodite shuddered

**The one called Joe Bob growled at me. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said: JB luvs Babycakes."And lose our tasty morsels? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"**

"See cannibals"

"We get it" Poseidon said

**He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line—but these balls weren't made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like riffle balls with fire bubbling out the holes. They must've been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.**

Poseidon groaned great they were two chapters in and his son was already in mortal danger fantastic

**"Coach!" I yelled.**

"Yes because that doofus is so going to help you"

"I was panicking ok besides I was a kid it's kind of second nature to turn the adult in the room even if said adult is someone stupid"

**Nunley looked up sleepily, but if he saw anything abnormal about the dodgeball game, he didn't let on. That's the problem with mortals. A magical force called the Mist obscures the true appearance of monsters and gods from their vision, so mortals tend to see only what they can understand. Maybe the coach saw a few eighth graders pounding the younger kids like usual.**

"Or maybe he saw them as giants but as he moves less than a dead mummy he probably doesn't care"

** Maybe the other kids saw Matt Sloan's thugs getting ready to toss Molotov cock tails around. (It wouldn't have been the first time.)**

"Wait what you mean there was another time when people were throwing Molotov cocktails around cause that would be kind of cool"

"I think I was just talking about the mist making mortals see weird things"

** At any rate, I was pretty sure nobody else realized we were dealing with genuine man-eating bloodthirsty monsters.**

**"Yeah. Mm-hmm," Coach muttered. "Play nice."**

**And he went back to his magazine.**

Hermes and Apollo were laughing there were a few other snorts and amused smiles despite the tension of man eating blood thirsty monsters

**The giant named Skull Eater threw his ball. I dove aside as the fiery bronze comet sailed past my shoulder.**

Poseidon tensed hoping his son didn't get hurt

**"Corey!" I screamed.**

**Tyson pulled him out from behind the exercise mat just as the ball exploded against it, blasting the mat to smoking shreds.**

**"Run!" I told my teammates. "The other exit!"**

"Yeah yelling out that they should use the other exit in front of the monsters was probably not the best idea; I mean Lastrygonians are dumb but they're not that dumb"

**They ran for the locker room, but with another wave of Joe Bob's hand, that door also slammed shut.**

"See this would have been the time to use the earlier simile like magic"

"Wow owl head you are still on that" Poseidon stated Athena looked ready to kill but Zeus shot her and Poseidon a look and Athena sighed and continued to read

**"No one leaves unless you're out!" Joe Bob roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"**

**He launched his own fireball. My teammates scattered as it blasted a crater in the gym floor.**

"You better hurry and finish this Percy because sooner or later someone's going to get fried"

**I reached for Riptide, which I always kept in my pocket, but then I realized I was wearing gym shorts.**

"Let me get this straight you sleep with your sword but you don't bring it to gym class" Jason asked incredulously

"Umm yeah probably not my smartest moment" Percy replied

"You think"

**I had no pockets. Riptide was tucked in my jeans inside my gym locker. And the locker room door was sealed. I was completely defenseless.**

Poseidon was now a sickly pale color as he listened intently to the story

**Another fireball came streaking toward me. Tyson pushed me out of the way, but the explosion still blew me head over heels. I found myself sprawled on the gym floor, dazed from smoke, my tie-dyed T-shirt peppered with sizzling holes. **

Percy had the air knocked out of him as he let out a slight "oof"

"You ok" Theseus asked his brother

"Yeah no worries trust me I'm used to that feeling" he said looking over at Thalia who put on an innocent look

"What"

**Just across the center line, two hungry giants were glaring down at me.**

**"Flesh!" they bellowed. "Hero flesh for lunch!" They both took aim.**

"Eeww" Aphrodite cringed "that's just so gross they really need to find a new diet" Artemis rolled her eyes she couldn't believe she was related to someone so dumb

**"Percy needs help!" Tyson yelled, and he jumped in front of me just as they threw their balls.**

"Aww how sweet" Aphrodite cooed

"Oh no" Hestia said she hoped he was the kind of monster who could handle that kind of fire power

**"Tyson!" I screamed, but it was too late.**

Everyone in the room subconsciously leaned forward as Athena continued to read

**Both balls slammed into him ... but no ... he'd caught them. Somehow Tyson, who was so clumsy he knocked over lab equipment and broke playground structures on a regular basis, had caught two fiery metal balls speeding toward him at a zillion miles an hour.**

"Zillion isn't a number" Athena stated

"Really that's what you focusing on right now" Hermes stated "lady you need to straighten out your priorities"

**He sent them hurtling back toward their surprised owners, who screamed, "BAAAAAD!" as the bronze spheres exploded against their chests.**

Laughter echoed around the room

**The giants disintegrated in twin columns of flame—a sure sign they were monsters, all right. Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.**

"Which comes in handy, it would really suck to have to clean up a dead monster"

**"My brothers!" Joe Bob the Cannibal wailed. He flexed his muscles and his Babycakes tattoo rippled. "You will pay for their destruction!"**

"Dun dun dun"

"Apollo, Hermes please"

"Sorry uncle p"

**"Tyson!" I said. "Look out!"**

**Another comet hurtled toward us. Tyson just had time to swat it aside. It flew straight over Coach Nunley's head and landed in the bleachers with a huge KA-BOOM!**

"How can he not notice that" Nico asked

"Mortals are idiots" Mr.D stated in answer

"Can we address something else here; I mean Tyson is kicking some monster butt. What kind of monster is this kid?"

"There are a couple of options, but I believe he's a Cyclops. It fits the mist is blocking out his one eye which is why Percy couldn't look at him in the eye, also despite how big he is compared to mortals he's still very young in Cyclops years which would explain his way of talking like a kid, and also Cyclops have incredible strength and can withstand high amounts of heat"

"Thank you walking encyclopedia of monsters" Athena glared at a smirking Poseidon

"And most Cyclops are born to one god in particular" she said smirking at him as it was Poseidon's turn to glare at her

**Kids were running around screaming, trying to avoid the sizzling craters in the floor. Others were banging on the door, calling for help. Sloan himself stood petrified in the middle of the court, watching in disbelief as balls of death flew around him.**

"I'm surprised he hasn't got hit yet"

**Coach Nunley still wasn't seeing anything. He tapped his hearing aid like the explosions were giving him interference, but he kept his eyes on his magazine.**

**Surely the whole school could hear the noise. The head master, the police, somebody would come help us.**

"Even if they did show up they wouldn't be able to help too much against them and more people would probably get hurt" Hestia stated Percy nodded

**"Victory will be ours!" roared Joe Bob the Cannibal. "We will feast on your bones!"**

**I wanted to tell him he was taking the dodgeball game way too seriously,**

"Nice Percy"

"I can't believe those are the kinds of thoughts you have when in the middle of battle" Hazel stated

**but before I could, he hefted another ball. The other three giants followed his lead.**

**I knew we were dead. Tyson couldn't deflect all those balls at once. His hands had to be seriously burned from blocking the first volley. Without my sword ...**

**I had a crazy idea.**

"Awesome" Nico stated

"Yeah your crazy ideas rock"

"Thank you, thank you" Percy mock bowed to his cousins who both punched him "ow"

**I ran toward the locker room.**

**"Move!" I told my teammates. "Away from the door."**

Athena nodded "not a bad idea I must say"

**Explosions behind me. Tyson had batted two of the balls back toward their owners and blasted them to ashes. **

"Yeah, Tyson!" The demigods cheered as well as Apollo and Hermes

**That left two giants still standing.**

**A third ball hurtled straight at me. I forced myself to wait**

Poseidon tensed

**—one Mississippi, two Mississippi—then dove aside as the fiery sphere demolished the locker room door.**

"That was incredibly risky, if you hadn't of moved in time that could have turned out bad" Theseus stated

"It was the only plan I had besides it's actually one of my safer plans" Percy replied and Theseus looked at his brother in shock then shook his head

"I shouldn't be surprised by that"

**Now, I figured that the built-up gas in most boys' locker rooms was enough to cause an explosion, so I wasn't surprised when the flaming dodgeball ignited a huge WHOOOOOOOM!**

"Eeww" Aphrodite squealed out the other girls in the room agreed

"Wicked" Ares stated the boys all nodded

Aphrodite shuddered "so not wicked" and she humphed and turned her back on Ares who shrugged

**The wall blew apart. Locker doors, socks, athletic supporters, and other various nasty personal belongings rained all over the gym.**

"And there's the downside to your plan" Athena said "your sword could have landed anywhere now you have to find it"

**I turned just in time to see Tyson punch Skull Eater in the face. The giant crumpled. But the last giant, Joe Bob, had wisely held on to his own ball, waiting for an opportunity. He threw just as Tyson was turning to face him.**

"No" Thalia Nico and Hazel yelled Jason tensed up Tyson didn't seem like a bad guy/monster and he hoped he wasn't hurt although if Athena was right it wouldn't leave to much damage

**"No!" I yelled.**

Everyone was to worried to laugh or comment at the fact that they had said the same thing as Percy

**The ball caught Tyson square in the chest. He slid the length of the court and slammed into the back wall, which cracked and partially crumbled on top of him, making a hole right onto Church Street.**

Hestia gasped she hoped the young monster was ok

** I didn't see how Tyson could still be alive, but he only looked dazed.**

"He has to be a Cyclops" Athena reasoned

The others sighed out in relief

"I never thought I'd feel worried for a monster" Orion said both Perseus and Theseus agreed

** The bronze ball was smoking at his feet. Tyson tried to pick it up, but he fell back, stunned, into a pile of cinder blocks.**

"Oh no, he must be hurt poor thing even if he is ugly" Aphrodite said

**"Well!" Joe Bob gloated. "I'm the last one standing! I'll have enough meat to bring Babycakes a doggie bag!"**

**He picked up another ball and aimed it at Tyson.**

The atmosphere was tense again Cyclops or not another blow like that and Tyson could be killed

**"Stop!" I yelled. "It's me you want!"**

"No Percy" although Poseidon was worried for the other boy who as Athena hinted at could be his son; right now he didn't know that for sure and Percy was his main concern

**The giant grinned. "You wish to die first, young hero?"**

"Well based on everything so far I'd say that was his wish"

**I had to do something. Riptide had to be around here somewhere.**

**Then I spotted my jeans in a smoking heap of clothes right by the giant's feet.**

"It's true you really are the unluckiest kid I have ever met"

** If I could only get there... I knew it was hopeless, but I charged.**

"PERCY"

"What I didn't have any other plans"

"That doesn't mean you just charge into unreasonable situations it'll just get you killed"

"Look I'm sorry but I couldn't just stand there"

"You can't be mad at him he's acting just like you when you were younger" Hestia stated

"That's true" hades stated smirking Poseidon rolled his eyes at his 2 older siblings

**The giant laughed. "My lunch approaches." He raised his arm to throw. I braced myself to die.**

Thalia and Nico punched Percy hard in the arm "it's like you want to die" they yelled at Percy in anger

**Suddenly the giant's body went rigid. His expression changed from gloating to surprise. Right where his belly button should've been, his T-shirt ripped open and he grew something like a horn—no, not a horn—the glowing tip of a blade.**

"You are so lucky somebody saved your butt because if you would have gotten hurt I would have killed you" Thalia said angrily "we need to have a talk about your lack of care for your life"

**He muttered, "Ow," and burst into a cloud of green flame, which I figured was going to make Babycakes pretty upset.**

A few people laughed Thalia was still angry and Percy sighed what were all his friends going to get mad at him at some point in this reading

**Standing in the smoke was my friend Annabeth. Her face was grimy and scratched. She had a ragged backpack slung over her shoulder, her baseball cap tucked in her pocket, a bronze knife in her hand, and a wild look in her storm-gray eyes, like she'd just been chased a thousand miles by ghosts.**

"Or monsters" Hermes stated

Athena tensed her grip on the book tightening at the state her daughter was in

**Matt Sloan, who'd been standing there dumbfounded the whole time, finally came to his senses. He blinked at Annabeth, as if he dimly recognized her from my notebook picture. "That's the girl ... That's the girl—"**

**Annabeth punched him in the nose and knocked him flat.**

"Girl power" Aphrodite cheered

Thalia smiled "go Annabeth"

Artemis thought Annabeth could be a good hunter so far she had proven herself now if she would only stay away from Percy and shed be fine

**"And you," she told him, "lay off my friend."**

"Again go Annabeth" Thalia said

"She is pretty awesome" Percy smiled

**The gym was in flames. Kids were still running around screaming. I heard sirens wailing and a garbled voice over the intercom. Through the glass windows of the exit doors, I could see the headmaster, Mr. Bonsai,**

"What is with these names there just ridiculous" Hermes laughed

** wrestling with the lock, a crowd of teachers piling up behind him.**

**"Annabeth ..." I stammered. "How did you ... how long have you ..."**

"Good question" Apollo said

Thalia however looked at Percy "it was her wasn't it hahaha that is so good"

**"Pretty much all morning." She sheathed her bronze knife. "I've been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone."**

"OMG" Aphrodite cried out

**"The shadow I saw this morning—that was—" My face felt hot. "Oh my gods, you were looking in my bed room window?"**

Aphrodite squealed and went off on a tangent of how cute that was and how they were meant for each other and so much more that no one could make out because of her squealing in between words

"That isn't awkward or weird at all" Hermes laughed

Athena groaned Percy wasn't all that bad but he was still fish breaths son and she did not want her daughter dating that

**"There's no time to explain!" she snapped, though she looked a little red-faced herself. "I just didn't want to—"**

**"There!" a woman screamed. The doors burst open and the adults came pouring in.**

**"Meet me outside," Annabeth told me. "And him." She pointed to Tyson, who was still sitting dazed against the wall. Annabeth gave him a look of distaste that I didn't quite understand. "You'd better bring him."**

"What's she so upset about if she was there she would have seen him save Percy's life shouldn't she be happy?" Hazel asked

"She has her reasons" Percy and Thalia stated

**"What?"**

**"No time!" she said. "Hurry!"**

**She put on her Yankees baseball cap, which was a magic gift from her mom, and instantly vanished.**

**That left me standing alone in the middle of the burning gymnasium when the headmaster came charging in with half the faculty and a couple of police officers.**

"Your luck astounds me" Thalia stated

"Me too Thals me too"

**"Percy Jackson?" Mr. Bonsai said. "What ... how ..."**

**Over by the broken wall, Tyson groaned and stood up from the pile of cinder blocks. "Head hurts."**

**Matt Sloan was coming around, too. He focused on me with a look of terror. "Percy did it, Mr. Bonsai! He set the whole building on fire. Coach Nunley will tell you! He saw it all!"**

"That little jerk wad"

"That was a really bad insult"

"I'm from the 40s"

"You don't even remember your time in the 40s Nico"

"Look if Hazel can use that excuse then I can"

"Sure Nico whatever you say"

**Coach Nunley had been dutifully reading his magazine, but just my luck—he chose that moment to look up when Sloan said his name. "Eh? Yeah. Mm-hmm."**

"Please tell me you're not the subject of a nationwide man hunt again"

"Not exactly the police came and they said it was a gas main that exploded and how could I have caused that besides all the nerds stood up for me"

**The other adults turned toward me. I knew they would never believe me, even if I could tell them the truth.** **I grabbed Riptide out of my ruined jeans, told Tyson, "Come on!" and jumped through the gaping hole in the side of the building.**

"Well that's it"

"Good god Percy you had a busy last day of school"

"It is nowhere near over yet, trust me"

"Here you go Hestia" Athena said handing off the book. Hestia smiled and opened up to the next chapter.

AN: Hey guys I didn't really like this chapter the middle was good but the beginning and the end were just I don't know I had to force myself to keep writing and I'm not sure why, I thought this would be a fun chapter to write but in all honesty I'm more looking forward to the next few chapters. Anyway I hope you guys at least somewhat enjoyed it. Please review all criticism welcome


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thanks for all your wonderful reviews I really had a good time reading them and some were really helpful. I would also like to wish Riley Person a happy birthday and I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

DISCLAIMER: still just a poor teenage college student not a famous writer

"**We Hail the Taxi of Eternal Torment," **Hestia started.

"That sounds fun" Hazel laughed

"Yeah we had a blast" Percy said sarcastically

**Annabeth was waiting for us in an alley down Church Street. She pulled Tyson and me off the sidewalk just as a fire truck screamed past, heading for Meriwether Prep.**

"She's probably had a lot of practice keeping you out of site from your last quest" Thalia stated

**"Where'd you find ****_hIm_****?" she demanded, pointing at Tyson.**

"That's really cruel" Hazel said "Tyson did save Percy's life"

"Annabeth had a reason to distrust him and its fine now" Percy defended his girlfriend

**Now, under different circumstances, I would've been really happy to see her.**

Aphrodite was squealing like a schoolgirl

** We'd made our peace last summer, despite the fact that her mom was Athena and didn't get along with my dad. I'd missed Annabeth probably more than I wanted to admit.**

"That is so adorable" Aphrodite cooed Percy was blushing but he also had a soft smile on his face

**But I'd just been attacked by cannibal giants, Tyson had saved my life three or four times, and all Annabeth could do was glare at him like ****_he _****was the problem.**

Hazel looked confused Percy had told her and frank a lot about Annabeth since regaining his memory and this didn't sound like her from what she heard. She tried to keep in mind what Percy said about her having a reason

**"He's my friend," I told her.**

**"Is he homeless?"**

Hestia frowned

"That wasn't very nice" Hera stated

"She probably sees past the mist and sees him as a monster" Athena stated "can you blame her for being a little untrusting" no one could argue with Athena

**"What does that have to do with anything? He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"**

**She looked surprised. "He can talk?"**

More frowns were directed at the book. Percy frowned also, not at Annabeth, but at the thought of them judging her. He wanted to defend her and tell them the truth, but that would give way part of the story… still if anyone said anything unnecessary he would definitely say something

**"I talk," Tyson admitted. "You are pretty."**

"Aww that's just so sweet"

Percy laughed remembering how much Tyson adored Annabeth

**"Ah! Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him.**

"How rude I mean honestly if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all" Aphrodite said

"Umm you called him ugly earlier" Hermes pointed out

"Yes but he couldn't hear me now could he" she said. Hermes rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything back it was pretty much useless to argue with Aphrodite

**I couldn't believe she was being so rude. I examined Tyson's hands, which I was sure must've been badly scorched by the flaming dodge balls, but they looked fine—grimy and scarred, with dirty fingernails the size of potato chips—but they always looked like that. "Tyson," I said in disbelief. "Your hands aren't even burned."**

"And now Annabeth's going to point out what Percy has been missing for a whole year" Thalia teased Percy stuck out his tongue at her.

**"Of course not," Annabeth muttered. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around."**

"They probably thought they could handle a young Cyclops"

"Besides Laistrygonians aren't exactly the smartest monsters out there"

**Tyson seemed fascinated by Annabeth's blond hair. He tried to touch it, but she smacked his hand away.**

**"Annabeth," I said, "What are you talking about? Laistry-what?"**

"You don't even know what you're fighting" Athena sighed rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration

"I don't exactly study Greek mythology when I'm away from camp"

"Why not? You should learn as much as you can"

"I live it. When I'm at camp or on a quest I live that life full of monsters, when I'm at home I don't want to study it I just want to be normal or as normal as I can be." Athena said nothing because for once she had nothing to say; although, it wasn't the wisest decision she could still understand the boy and where he was coming from. The life of a hero was a hard and dangerous one being able to be normal even for a while must feel nice.

**"Laistrygonians. The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York before."**

"That's true," Athena stated "it can't mean anything good that they have started to migrate"

**"Laistry—I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?"**

**She thought about it for a moment. "Canadians," she decided. **

Nico nodded "I like that much better, Canadians, yup definitely easier than Laistrygonians

**"Now come on, we have to get out of here."**

**"The police'll be after me."**

"Don't worry you managed to outrun them for weeks last time, you should be just fine"

**"That's the least of our problems," she said. "Have you been having the dreams?"**

"So she's been dreaming about Grover too" Nico stated

"Not exactly" Percy stated

"What?" Nico questioned "then what was she dreaming about?" Percy opened his mouth to speak but Nico cut him off "I know I know the book will tell me" Nico fake pouted and Percy smiled at him

**"The dreams ... about Grover?"**

**Her face turned pale. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"**

"Great now my daughters going to have more to worry about" Athena stated

**I told her my dream. "Why? What were ****_you _****dreaming about?"**

**Her eyes looked stormy, like her mind was racing a million miles an hour.**

**"Camp," she said at last. "Big trouble at camp."**

Thalia look softened and she smiled sadly

"She was dreaming about you and she was really worried" Percy whispered so only Thalia could hear.

Thalia smiled half happy half sad knowing Annabeth was worried about her made her happy, it meant Annabeth cared for her, but at the same time it must have been a terrible burden and how Annabeth must have felt when she had died Thalia couldn't even Imagine. Her and Annabeth had never really talked about that.

**"My mom was saying the same thing! But what ****_kind _****of trouble?"**

Thalia grimaced she didn't really remember anything from being a tree and it's not like she felt pain, but knowing that her friend, the one person she trusted the most, knowing that Luke had been the one to poison her was such a shock she'd never get over it. Jason looked at his sister in worry he knew she was a tree so she couldn't be in danger, but he still felt uneasy.

**"I don't know exactly. Something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. Have you had a lot of attacks?"**

Athena paled; her daughter must have been in so much danger

**I shook my head. "None all year ... until today."**

**"None? But how ..." Her eyes drifted to Tyson. "Oh."**

Poseidon smiled silently thanking Tyson in the future for keeping his son safe

**"What do you mean, 'oh'?"**

"That has to be frustrating" Perseus remarked

**Tyson raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something ... Son of the Sea God?"**

"Even though he's young he should still know about gods and stuff right, I mean he is a Cyclops" Hazel asked confused

"He would know" Poseidon stated "although, he still might be confused by some aspects of it as he's still very young" Poseidon answered

**Annabeth and I exchanged looks.**

**I didn't know how I could explain, but I figured Tyson deserved the truth after almost getting killed.**

"So you mean I took the next couple of minutes awkwardly trying to explain everything to him and he already knew "

Nico laughed "sounds like something that would happen to you"

**"Big guy," I said, "you ever hear those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena—"**

"Out of all of us you went with Athena" Hermes stated "I mean I get Zeus king of the gods, and Poseidon he's your dad but really Athena?" Athena glared at Hermes

"Well Athena is Annabeth's mom and she's pretty well known so…" Percy shrugged at the end "why not" Athena looked a bit smug at the well-known part

**"Yes," Tyson said.**

**"Well ... those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries****_, _****so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."**

"So much for secrecy" Hera huffed

"He's a monster who cares" Hephaestus stated

"What if he was a human?"

"Well he's not"

**"Yes," Tyson said, like he was still waiting for me to get to the point.**

"The only thing he cares about is the fact that you're the son of Poseidon" Thalia whispered

"How was I supposed to know that" Percy said Thalia shrugged and Percy punched her on the arm

**"Uh, well, Annabeth and I are half-bloods," I said. "We're like ... heroes-in-training. And whenever monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters."**

**"Yes."**

**I stared at him. He didn't seem surprised or confused by what I was telling him, which surprised and confused me. **

"That should have probably been your first clue that Tyson wasn't exactly human Perce"

**"So ... you believe me?"**

**Tyson nodded. "But you are ... Son of the Sea God?"**

**"Yeah," I admitted. "My dad is Poseidon."**

Poseidon smiled proudly

**Tyson frowned. ****_Now_** **he looked confused. "But then …"**

"Then what" Hermes asked

"It cuts off there" Hestia said

"Oh" Hermes looked a bit disappointed

**A siren wailed. A police car raced past our alley.**

**"We don't have time for this," Annabeth said. "We'll talk the taxi."**

"A taxi to camp, wouldn't that cost like a shit ton?" Nico questioned

"Not if use the right cab" Thalia said and then she slapped Nico over the head "and language"

**"A taxi all the way to camp?" I said. "You know how much money—"**

"Percy agrees"

"Well then you and Percy are equally oblivious to half-blood transportation"

"Yeah I wish I was still oblivious to this sort of transportation," Percy stated "the taxi had been the worst ride had ever taken"

**"Trust me."**

"He already does" Thalia remarked and Percy nodded he trusted Annabeth with his life even back then during their first quests together

**I hesitated. "What about Tyson?"**

**I imagined escorting my giant friend into Camp Half-Blood. If he freaked out on a regular playground with regular bullies, how would he act at a training camp for demigods?**

Hestia felt bad for the young Cyclops not many heroes were excepting of children like him

** On the other hand, the cops would be looking for us.**

"How many other schools do you blow stuff up at?" Nico asked

"Just one other after this one"

**"We can't just leave him," I decided. "He'll be in trouble, too." **

**"Yeah." Annabeth looked grim. "We definitely need to take him. Now come on."**

**I didn't like the way she said that, as if Tyson were a big disease we needed to get to the hospital,**

"She could try at least being a little nicer, she's acting like a bully"

"Annabeth has had a really bad experience with a Cyclops so she has every right to be a bit untrusting and upset so cut her some slack already!"

Hazel looked shocked at Percy's outburst but nodded

Percy felt slightly bad, but he was tired of them thinking Annabeth was mean when she was one of the nicest people he knew

** But I followed her down the alley. Together the three of us sneaked through the side streets of downtown while a huge column of smoke billowed up behind us from my school gymnasium.**

"Good" Athena huffed

"What! Athena not minding that a school was destroyed" Poseidon asked in feigned shock. Athena rolled her eyes

"It was a terrible school with terrible staff; hardly a place of learning and knowledge"

**"Here." Annabeth stopped us on the corner of Thomas and TrImble. She fished around in her backpack. "I hope I have one left."**

**She looked even worse than I'd realized at first. **

"Well I'm sure she appreciates the compliment" Thalia said sarcastically although Percy could see the worry in her eyes

Athena was a bit more worried and she hoped Annabeth wasn't hurt badly

**Her chin was cut. Twigs and grass were tangled in her ponytail, as if she'd slept several nights in the open. The slashes on the hems of her jeans looked suspiciously like claw marks.**

"She must have been through so much" Thalia stated

"She is strong and brave" Artemis commented

**"What are you looking for?" I asked.**

**All around us, sirens wailed. I figured it wouldn't be long before more cops cruised by, looking for juvenile delinquent gym-bombers. No doubt Matt Sloan had given them a statement by now. He'd probably twisted the story around so that Tyson and I were the bloodthirsty cannibals.**

"I'm sure the teachers wouldn't believe that"

"Hey maybe they thought it was Ares again; I mean the press did say he escaped in the last book maybe they'll think it was him coming back to take revenge" Hermes stated

"Or, like I said earlier, it was a gas explosion" Percy said "that seems to be their favorite way of explaining explosions that demigods cause"

"It's the simpler way" Athena corrected

**"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a gold coin that I recognized as a drachma, the currency of Mount Olympus. It had Zeus's likeness stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.**

Zeus smirked and Poseidon rolled his eyes.

Jason still couldn't believe how much more the Greeks had then the romans. They had gold coins and a ton of weapons, while the romans had a limited supply of Imperial gold and denarii. Why did it seem the Greeks got so much more than the romans?

**"Annabeth," I said, "New York taxi drivers won't take that."**

"You're not going to be using New York taxis" Thalia said smiling evilly

**"****_Stêthi_****," she shouted in Ancient Greek. ****_"Ô hárma diabolês!"_**

"Oh you're taking that taxi" Hermes smiled "this should be interesting"

"I hate their taxi service it's dreadful" Aphrodite said

"You used it" Hermes asked in shock

"It was emergency"

"What kind of emergency"

"None of your business"

**As usual, the moment she spoke in the language of Olympus, I somehow understood it. She'd said: ****_Stop, Chariot of Damnation!_**

"That sounds delightful" Theseus stated sarcastically

"And after hearing that you still get in the taxi?" Orion asked

"I didn't exactly have much choice"

**That didn't exactly make me feel real excited about whatever her plan was.**

"At least you have some sense"

"More than Annabeth obviously "

"How'd she even know about that?"

"I knew about it through some… help" Thalia stated "and we used it once on the way to camp half-blood"

**She threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared.**

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

"Then BANG!" Nico yelled the demigods who had leaned in in anticipation jumped and glared at Nico and Percy who were both laughing. Hestia giggled and continued to read

**Then, just where the coin had fallen, the asphalt darkened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space—bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze.**

"It appeared in bubbling red liquid like blood and you still trusted it enough to get in it" Jason stated

"I figured since it was Annabeth's idea then it was at least somewhat sane"

"Good point" Jason stated

**It was a taxi, all right, but unlike every other taxi in New York, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. I mean it looked like it was ****_woven _****out of smoke, like you could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door—something like GYAR SSIRES—but my dyslexia made it hard for me to decipher what it said.**

"Gray sisters" Athena stated (it's actually spelt Grey but in America we spell it gray…fun fact)

"The gray sisters" Hazel thought for a moment "weren't they the three sisters who only had one eye and one tooth"

"Yes" Athena smiled at Hazel

**The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair covering her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she'd just had a shot of Novocain. **

**"Passage? Passage?"**

**"Three to Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. She opened the cab's back door and waved at me to get in, like this was all completely normal.**

"There were a few chuckles you'd think you'd be used to weird happenings after last year" Orion stated

**"Ach!" the old woman screeched. "We don't take ****_his _****kind!"**

"Poor Tyson he's just not having the best day is he"

**She pointed a bony finger at Tyson.**

**What was it? Pick-on-Big-and-Ugly-Kids Day?**

"See" Aphrodite stated "Percy called him ugly too"

"Aphrodite that argument is long past now"

"Just making a point"

**"Extra pay," Annabeth promised. "Three more drachma on arrival."**

"Did you even have three drachmas I mean you could hardly find one?"

"The gray sisters have their way of getting paid" Hestia explained

"Yup I had 3 less drachmas in the stash I had in my cabin" Percy stated

**"Done!" the woman screamed.**

**Reluctantly I got in the cab. Tyson squeezed in the middle. Annabeth crawled in last.**

"If Annabeth didn't like Tyson that much then why did you have them sit next to each other" Hazel asked Percy shrugged "I wasn't really thinking about that at the moment"

**The interior was also smoky gray, but it felt solid enough. The seat was cracked and lumpy—no different than most taxis. There was no Plexiglas screen separating us from the old lady driving ... **

"Ladies" Athena corrected

**Wait a minute. There wasn't just one old lady. There were three, all crammed in the front seat, each with stringy hair covering her eyes, bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress.**

**The one driving said, "Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!"**

**She floored the accelerator, and my head slammed against the backrest.**

There was a chorus of "oooo's" (you know like what people do when they see someone get hurt during a show or movie)

Percy rubbed his head a blush on his face

** A prerecorded voice came on over the speaker: ****_Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!_**

"That was probably hilarious" Hermes said

"Why" Hazel asked not seeing the humor

"Ganymede hates his job so he couldn't have been to enthused saying that"

"Yeah" Percy laughed "it sounded like he was using one of those fake happy voices that had that underlying message of please kill me now"

"Poor dude" Nico commented

**I looked down and found a large black chain instead of a seat belt. I decided I wasn't that desperate ... yet.**

"Anything's better than nothing on that ride" Athena said frowning "you could have gotten majorly hurt"

**The cab sped around the corner of West Broadway, and the gray lady sitting in the middle screeched, "Look out! Go left!"**

"Yeah I see how this taxi cab works" Nico laughed "it's kind of like the knight bus on harry potter except more psychotic"

**"Well, ****_if _****you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could ****_see _****that!" the driver complained.**

"Wait! Give her the eye you mean that they gave the eye to the lady not driving?" Hazel said in shock

"They have a system" Athena stated "each of them gets the eye for a day then they switch off"

"Then the lady with the eye should be driving" Hazel commented

"Their nicknamed the wyrd sisters for a reason darling" Aphrodite said

**Wait a minute. ****_Give her the eye?_**

"Hazels starting to think like Percy now too, no Hazel no!"

"Shut up Nico" Hazel laughed

**I didn't have time to ask questions because the driver swerved to avoid an oncoming ****_delivery _****truck, **

"The cab will get you killed before any monster" Orion stated

**ran over the curb with a jaw-rattling ****_thump, _****and flew into the next block.**

**"Wasp!" the third lady said to the driver. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."**

**"You bit it last time, Anger!" said the driver, whose name must've been Wasp. "It's my turn!"**

"Ok wait a second" Perseus said "aren't their names actually deino, enyo, and pemphredo"

"It's the 20th century they decided those names were too much; kind of like how procrustes changed his name to crusty" (AN: I really don't know if this is the reason but I had no other explanation so…)

**"Is not!" yelled the one called Anger.**

**The middle one, Tempest, screamed, "Red light!"**

**"Brake!" yelled Anger.**

**Instead, Wasp floored the accelerator and rode up on the curb, screeching around another corner, and knocking over a newspaper box. She left my stomach somewhere back on Broome Street.**

"That sounds absolutely terrifying"

"Says the girl who rides on arion" Percy commented

**"Excuse me," I said. "But ... can you see?"**

**"No!" screamed Wasp from behind the wheel.**

**"No!" screamed Tempest from the middle.**

"So not only is the one with the eye not driving, but she's also the one farthest from the wheel" Hazel said in exasperation

**"Of course!" screamed Anger by the shotgun window.**

**I looked at Annabeth. "They're blind?"**

**"Not completely," Annabeth said. "They have an eye."**

"Yes cause that completely reassuring" Thalia stated

**"One eye?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Each?"**

**"No. One eye total."**

"Now is the moment you put on that seatbelt" Athena stated

"I kind of forgot about the seatbelt at the moment I was a bit preoccupied with the whole one eye thing"

**Next to me, Tyson groaned and grabbed the seat. "Not feeling so good."**

**"Oh, man," I said, because I'd seen Tyson get carsick on school field trips and it was ****_not _****something you wanted to be within fifty feet of. "Hang in there, big guy. Anybody got a garbage bag or something?"**

"Eww ew ew ew" Aphrodite squealed out in disgust

**The three gray ladies were too busy squabbling to pay me any attention. I looked over at Annabeth, who was hanging on for dear life, and I gave her a ****_why-did-you-do-this-to-me _****look.**

Thalia had to laugh at that

"What"

"Well I think it's funny that you're giving her that look because when you think about it isn't that the look the girl gives the guy when she's giving birth"

Nico snorted

**"Hey," she said, "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."**

"So why didn't she take it from Virginia" Hazel asked

"I think I can answer that" Hestia said before Thalia could reply

**"Then why didn't you take it from Virginia?"**

**"That's outside their service area," she said, like that should be obvious. "They only serve Greater New York and surrounding communities."**

"But you said you used it" Hazel said questioning Thalia

"We had just gotten in their range of service when we used them and they only took us a small way"

"Why"

"we had so many monsters following us not to mention an angry hades it made them uneasy so they kicked us out" Thalia stated (again I'm just making this up)

**"We've had famous people in this cab!" Anger exclaimed. "Jason! You remember him?"**

The heroes of old looked over at the present Jason

"Not me Jason, the Jason of your time; Well you probably haven't met him yet" Jason amended quickly

"They have a cab service in our time" Theseus asked confused

"Well they don't exactly use a cab but they still have a transportation service"

"Great now I know how not to travel" Orion said

**"Don't remind me!" Wasp wailed. "And we didn't have a cab back then, you old bat. That was three thousand years ago!"**

"See" Athena stated smugly

**"Give me the tooth!" Anger tried to grab at Wasp's mouth, but Wasp swatted her hand away.**

**"Only if Tempest gives me the eye!"**

**"No!" Tempest screeched. "You had it yesterday!"**

**"But I'm driving, you old hag!"**

"At least she has the right idea" Hazel huffed

**"Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"**

**Wasp swerved hard onto Delancey Street, squishing me between Tyson and the door. **

"That was probably incredibly uncomfortable"

**She punched the gas and we shot up the Williamsburg Bridge at seventy miles an hour.**

**The three sisters were fighting for real now, slapping each other as Anger tried to grab at Wasp's face and Wasp tried to grab at Tempest's.**

"Oh my god their going to get you killed" Hazel stated

** With their hair flying and their mouths open, screaming at each other, I realized that none of the sisters had any teeth except for Wasp, who had one mossy yellow incisor. Instead of eyes, they just had closed, sunken eyelids, except for Anger, who had one bloodshot green eye that stared at everything hungrily, as if it couldn't get enough of anything it saw.**

"That's kind of cool" Nico stated

"More like creepy" Hazel amended

**Finally Anger, who had the advantage of sight, managed to yank the tooth out of her sister Wasp's mouth. This made Wasp so mad she swerved toward the edge of the Williamsburg Bridge,**

Athena and Poseidon paled slightly Poseidon less so because at least they be landing in water if they fell

** yelling, "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!"**

**Tyson groaned and clutched his stomach.**

**"Uh, if anybody's interested," I said, "We're going to die!"**

"Nice Percy" Thalia said

"Very optimistic" Nico agreed

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me, sounding pretty worried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing. They're really very wise."**

"But not wise enough to give the one driving the eye" Hazel bit out

"You're really focused on that detail" Percy teased her

"It's just common sense" Hazel defended

**This was coming from the daughter of Athena, but I wasn't exactly reassured. **

Athena frowned

**We were skimming along the edge of a bridge a hundred and thirty feet above the East River.**

"Well at least you know if you fall you're not going to die" Perseus pointed out

**"Yes, wise!" Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth. "We know things!"**

**"Every street in Manhattan!" Wasp bragged, still hitting her sister. "The capital of Nepal!"**

**"The location you seek!" Tempest added.**

"That'll catch your attention" Hermes said

**Immediately her sisters pummeled her from either side, screaming, "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!"**

**"What?" I said. "What location? I'm not seeking any—"**

**"Nothing!" Tempest said. "You're right, boy. It's nothing!"**

"He's not going to give that up so easily" Thalia stated

**"Tell me."**

**"No!" they all screamed.**

"Still not going to work" Thalia said

**"The last time we told, it was horrible!" Tempest said.**

**"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger agreed.**

Perseus smiled sheepishly "my bad"

**"Years to find it again!" Wasp moaned. "And speaking of that—give it back!"**

"Please for once don't follow in your namesakes actions" Athena stated "it was a disaster" she looked toward Perseus who shrugged "I wanted answers"

**"No!" yelled Anger.**

**"Eye!" Wasp yelled. "GImme!"**

**She whacked her sister Anger on the back. There was a sickening ****_pop _****and something flew out of Anger's face.**

"Ugh gross" Hazel said making a gagging motion

** Anger fumbled for it, trying to catch it, but she only managed to bat it with the back of her hand. The slimy green orb sailed over her shoulder, into the backseat, and straight into my lap.**

"Oh that is so nasty" Apollo said

**I jumped so hard, my head hit the ceiling and the eyeball rolled away.**

"You could have used that as leverage" Perseus said

"No" a few of the gods stated Percy turned pink remembering that that was exactly what he had done

**"I can't see!" all three sisters yelled.**

**"Give me the eye!" Wasp wailed.**

**"Give her the eye!" Annabeth screamed.**

"Oh now she's worried" Hazel stated

**"I don't have it!" I said.**

**"There, by your foot," Annabeth said. "Don't step on it! Get it!"**

"Stepping on it would definitely not be good"

**"I'm not picking that up!"**

"Agreed that's just nasty" Aphrodite said nodding

**The taxi slammed against the guardrail and skidded along with a horrible grinding noise. The whole car shuddered, billowing gray smoke as if it were about to dissolve from the strain.**

**"Going to be sick!" Tyson warned.**

"eww!"

**"Annabeth," I yelled, "let Tyson use your backpack!"**

"Double eww!"

**"Are you crazy? Get the eye!"**

**Wasp yanked the wheel, and the taxi swerved away from the rail. We hurtled down the bridge toward Brooklyn, going faster than any human taxi. The Gray Sisters screeched and pummeled each other and cried out for their eye.**

"Now would be a good time to give their eye back"

**At last I steeled my nerves. I ripped off a chunk of my tie-dyed T-shirt, which was already falling apart from all the burn marks, and used it to pick the eyeball off the floor.**

"Gross gross gross"

"We get it!" the gods chorused at the squealing goddess

**"Nice boy!" Anger cried, as if she somehow knew I had her missing peeper.**

"Peeper" Nico laughed "jeepers creepers where'd you get those peepers" he sang

"You are so weird" Thalia commented

** "Give it back!"**

**"Not until you explain," I told her. "What were you talking about, the location I seek?"**

"Nice" Perseus smiled Percy smiled back

"Great" Athena rolled her eyes

**"No time!" Tempest cried. "Accelerating!"**

"That can't be good" Hermes said

**I** **looked out the window. Sure enough, trees and cars and whole neighborhoods were now zipping by in a gray blur. We were already out of Brooklyn, heading through the middle of Long Island.**

**"Percy," Annabeth warned, "they can't find our destination without the eye. We'll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces."**

Poseidon and Athena tensed up Athena turned to Poseidon "if your son gets my daughter killed so help me…" she left the threat hanging

**"First they have to tell me," I said. "Or I'll open the window and throw the eye into oncoming traffic."**

"Are you insane?"

"I wasn't actually going to do it I just wanted them to tell me where it was"

**"No!" the Gray Sisters wailed. "Too dangerous!"**

**"I'm rolling down the window."**

Perseus smiled he too had threatened although in the end he had actually thrown the eye in the lake but for a good reason

**"Wait!" the Gray Sisters screamed. "30, 31, 75, 12!"**

"That isn't a location" Hazel said confused

Athena refrained from speaking as she thought of the numbers and she had it coordinates of course she thought

**They belted it out like a quarterback calling a play.**

**"What do you mean?" I said. "That makes no sense!"**

**"30, 31, 75, 12!" Anger wailed. "That's all we can tell you. Now give us the eye! Almost to camp!"**

"Give it to them" Thalia said

"I did calm down"

**We were off the highway now, zipping through the countryside of northern Long Island. I could see Half-Blood Hill ahead of us, with its giant pine tree at the crest—Thalia's tree, which contained the life force of a fallen hero.**

Thalia smiled softly even that Percy held her in high regards and he had never even met her

**"Percy!" Annabeth said more urgently. "Give them the eye now!"**

**I decided not to argue. I threw the eye into Wasp's lap.**

"At least you didn't actually throw it" Hera glared toward Perseus

"In my defense I had to make sure they couldn't tell medusa I was coming to kill her" Perseus said Heraignored him her nose in the air in distain

**The old lady snatched it up, pushed it into her eye socket like somebody putting in a contact lens, and blinked. "Whoa!"**

**She slammed on the brakes. The taxi spun four or five times in a cloud of smoke and squealed to a halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half-Blood Hill.**

"At least that rides over" Thalia said

**Tyson let loose a huge belch. "Better now."**

The girls in the room looked disgusted

**"All right," I told the Gray Sisters. "Now tell me what those numbers mean."**

**"No time!" Annabeth opened her door. "We have to get out ****_now."_**

"Why" Nico asked "what's going on"

**I was about to ask why, when I looked up at Half-Blood Hill and understood.**

**At the crest of the hill was a group of campers. And they were under attack.**

"Oh that's why" Nico stated

"What's attacking?" Thalia asked looking toward Hestia

"That's the end of the chapter" she said "who's next"

"Me" Poseidon said smiling taking the book from his sister

AN: Ok another chapter done I really hoped you all liked it! I had fun writing this one and I can't wait to start the next one please review or PM me either way I really do appreciate your views. Also on another note I do realize that Artemis is kind of a bitch at the moment, but the truth is I hated her at the beginning of the titans curse especially how she allowed Zoë to convince Bianca like that! So yeah she will be kind of mean but don't worry she'll get better. Again please review!


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Hey guys don't kill me I thought I would have another chapter up a lot sooner but I still have no internet so updates will be a bit harder for me for a while. But I am not giving this story up! Alright now then… I went and saw the new Percy Jackson movie and let me tell you there is a lot to complain about, but I've decided you know what… it's a good movie it has a good premise and its characters always make me laugh and as I've said before Logan Lerman really is an amazing Percy Jackson, he's exactly what I pictured Percy to be like except with shaggier hair :p. The story line itself doesn't really go by the book but then I kind of expected that, so as just a movie I think it was good not great but good and I'm going to leave it at that and except it for what it is, because if I don't well I could complain about it till I died and I'm sure a few of you could too. But enough about that, onto the next chapter and I hope you all enjoy! Also I want to thank all the people who have given me ideas it's very helpful and I'll try to keep all of them into consideration.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing

"**Tyson Plays with Fire," **Poseidonstarted.

"Well at least it doesn't say Percy plays with fire," he stated happily.

"Poseidon," Hestia scolded.

"What?! It's nothing against Tyson, but he can handle the heat, I know he won't burn up and die, Percy on the other hand isn't quite as invulnerable," Poseidon defended himself.

**Mythologically speaking, if there's anything I hate worse than trios of old ladies, it's bulls. **

Percy nodded along with his earlier thought.

**Last summer, I fought the Minotaur on top of Half-Blood Hill.**

Everyone winced as they recalled that particular memory, they had all felt awful and little Percy's reaction had been so horribly saddening to most of those in the room. Percy winced because he remembered the feeling of loss and sadness like he had never felt before, at least back then he had never felt anything like that; lately the feeling seemed to come way too often.

**This time what I saw up there was even worse: two bulls. And not just regular bulls—bronze ones the size of elephants.**

"Great," Athena mumbled sarcastically.

Poseidon paled as he read on, "They get worse."

** And even ****_that _****wasn't bad enough. Naturally they had to breathe fire, too.**

Hermes laughed, "Naturally."

"As is my luck," Percy smiled at the god.

**As soon as we exited the taxi, the Gray Sisters peeled out, heading back to New York, where life was safer. They didn't even wait for their extra three-drachma payment. **

"Like I said earlier, I had three drachmas missing later on," Percy said.

"They have their ways of getting paid," Hades stated.

**They just left us on the side of the road, Annabeth with nothing but her backpack and knife, Tyson and me still in our burned-up tie-dyed gym clothes.**

"You must have looked so stupid," Ares laughed.

"And it's so not fashionable," Aphrodite added. Percy rolled his eyes.

**"Oh, man," said Annabeth, looking at the battle raging on the hill.**

"That's a bit of an understatement," Apollo said.

**What worried me most weren't the bulls themselves.**

"Really?" Orion, Theseus, and Poseidon looked over at Percy in confusion. They all said it in the same sort of exasperated tone which sent a few choice gods and Percy's cousins into laughter.

Percy gestured toward the book, "If you'll keep reading you'll understand."

**Or the ten heroes in full battle armor who were getting their bronze-plated booties whooped.**

Now more of the gods were looking at Percy oddly, except Hermes and Apollo, who were laughing over the word booties and Artemis was glaring at the two.

**What worried me was that the bulls were ranging all over the hill, even around the back side of the pine tree. **

"That's not possible!" Jason said. "No monsters can get past camp borders."

"Now you get what I was worried about?" Percy said the gods all looked worried. Poseidon continued quickly.

**That shouldn't have been possible. The camp's magic boundaries didn't allow monsters to cross past Thalia's tree. But the metal bulls were doing it anyway.**

"There must be something horribly wrong with the magical borders," Hestia looked over at Thalia in worry.

**One of the heroes shouted, "Border patrol, to me!" A girl's voice—gruff and familiar.**

**Border patrol? I thought. The camp didn't ****_have _****a border patrol.**

There was complete silence as Poseidon continued to read. Many of the gods were worried about their children, the older demigods were just curious, and Nico and Jason were confused.

**"It's Clarisse," Annabeth said. "Come on, we have to help her."**

None noticed Ares as he gripped his thrown a bit tighter.

**Normally, rushing to Clarisse's aid would not have been high on my "to do" list.**

Ares glared towards Percy.

"Percy, you should always help your fellow campers," Hestia lectured.

"I said normally," Percy stated.

**She was one of the biggest bullies at camp. The first time we'd met she tried to introduce my head to a toilet. She was also a daughter of Ares, and I'd had a very serious disagreement with her father last summer, so now the god of war and all his children basically hated my guts.**

"Yeah, all those things do put some pause on helping her," Apollo stated and Ares' glare transferred to Apollo. "But you should still help because …you should," Apollo rambled off. Ares' glare lessened only slightly.

**Still, she ****_was _****in trouble.**

"_See_?" said Percy. "I help her."

**Her fellow warriors were scattering, running in panic as the bulls charged. The grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree.**

"Your pine tree," Hestia said in concern. "I hope it doesn't get burned."

**One hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horse hair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery Mohawk. **

Apollo and Hermes burst out laughing and Zeus rolled his eyes. "You do know that that could be one of your kids?"

"I know," Hermes said wiping away his tears. "But just picturing the scene in my head was so comical it's like something off a children's cartoon."

"Then it was definitely someone from one of your cabins. Only your children would act so stupidly," Artemis commented.

**Clarisse's own armor was charred. She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the **

**other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.**

Ares looked both proud and worried for his future kid.

**I uncapped my ballpoint pen. It shimmered, growing longer and heavier until I held the bronze sword Anaklusmos in my hands. "Tyson, stay here. I don't want you taking any more chances."**

"I can't believe you still don't realize that he isn't human," Artemis stated in disbelief. "How thick can you get?"

"Hey!" Nico defended. "Look Percy may be a bit slow at times, but he's nowhere near as dumb as he seems."

"Gee thanks Nico," Percy said dryly.

"Anytime."

**"No!" Annabeth said. "We need him."**

**I stared at her. "He's mortal. He got lucky with the dodge balls but he can't—"**

Artemis rolled her eyes

**"Percy, do you know what those are up there? The Colchis bulls, made by Hephaestus himself. We can't fight them without Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000. We'll get burned to a crisp."**

**"Medea's ****_what?"_**

"Percy," Nico laughed shaking his head.

**Annabeth rummaged through her backpack and cursed. "I had a jar of tropical coconut scent sitting on my night-stand at home. Why didn't I bring it?"**

Thalia smiled, "That's just like Annabeth, gods I miss her."

"Me too," Percy whispered.

**I'd learned a long time ago not to question Annabeth too much. It just made me more confused. **

Multiple snorts were heard around the room. Nico actually agreed with Percy, Annabeth had a way of explaining things so that he couldn't understand a word she was saying.

**"Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm ****_not _****going to let Tyson get fried."**

"Well at least you know the boy cares," Hestia laughed. Percy felt like by the end of this chapter he was going to be a permanent shade of red.

**"Percy—"**

**"Tyson, stay back." I raised my sword. "I'm going in."**

Many of the gods sighed or shook their heads at Percy obliviousness but said nothing. the boy just looked so embarrassed.

**Tyson tried to protest, but I was already running up the hill toward Clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation. It was a good idea.**

"Duh," Ares said, as if it were obvious that his daughter would have the best plans.

** The few who were listening lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox-hide—and-bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills.**

Athena nodded; this daughter of Ares seemed very capable unlike Ares's other children who seemed to blunder around swinging their swords like clubs.

**Unfortunately, Clarisse could only muster six campers. The other four were still running around with their helmets on fire. **

"Why didn't they just take the helmets off?" Theseus wondered aloud.

"Because their men and they don't think," Artemis suggested.

"How do you know their men, Artemis? They could be girls… now who's being sexist?" Aphrodite taunted at Artemis who glared at said goddess.

**Annabeth ran toward them, trying to help. She taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, then turned invisible, completely confusing the monster.**

Athena smiled proudly at her daughter ingenuity.

**The other bull charged Clarisse's line.**

**I was halfway up the hill—not close enough to help. Clarisse hadn't even seen me yet.**

**The bull moved deadly fast for something so big. Its metal hide gleamed in the sun. It had fist-sized rubies for eyes, and horns of polished silver. When it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.**

Ares looked incredibly worried.

Athena did as well. "The odds aren't in the camper's favor," she said. "It's the beginning of the summer and half of the campers haven't even shown up yet. it's a miracle they haven't all died."

"Thank you Owlhead for that incredibly optimistic perspective," Poseidon glared.

**"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered her warriors.**

**Whatever else you could say about Clarisse, she was brave. **

The demigods all nodded and Ares puffed out his chest the epitome of a proud father, it was a rare sight.

**She was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. She looked like she was born to wear Greek battle armor, but I didn't see how even she could stand against that bull's charge.**

"That's almost flattering. Percy, is there something you're not telling us?" Aphrodite said suggestively and Ares immediately scowled.

"He better not."

Percy on the other hand gagged, "No way." His cousins all laughed at him.

**Unfortunately, at that moment, the other bull lost interest in finding Annabeth. It turned, wheeling around behind Clarisse on her unprotected side.**

Ares looked worried his grip tightening.

"Help her! Just don't yell at her, it will surprise her and throw off her concentration," Athena said.

**"Behind you!" I yelled. "Look out!"**

"Or you could do just what I said not to."

"This has already happened," Percy glared. "I can't change it."

**I shouldn't have said anything, because all I did was startle her. Bull Number One crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke. Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass.**

Ares leaned slightly forward wanting to know what was going to happen.

**The bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as Bull Number Two closed in on Clarisse for the kill.**

Percy had never seen Ares looked so worried, it was odd but then Percy thought Clarisse was his daughter.

**I lunged forward and grabbed Clarisse by the straps of her armor. I dragged her out of the way just as Bull Number Two freight-trained past.**

Ares shot Percy a slightly grateful look but said nothing. After all, he still hated the little demigod twerp.

**I gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.**

**It hadn't touched me, but I could feel the heat of its metal skin. Its body temperature could've microwaved a frozen burrito.**

"Aww man now I'm hungry," Hermes whined, an arrow lodged in his throne next to his head. "Look at that I just lost my appetite," Hermes laughed out nervously. Poseidon ignored his niece and nephew and kept reading.

**"Let me go!" Clarisse pummeled my hand. "Percy, curse you!"**

"Not even a 'thanks?'" Hazel said bewildered.

"In Clarisse language that is thanks," Thalia laughed. Hazel didn't see what was so funny, Romans were proud but they gave credit where credit was due.

**I dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. We were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of Camp Half-Blood directly below us—the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House—all of it at risk if these bulls got past us.**

"You better come up with a good plan then," Athena stated.

"Annabeth had the good plan part covered," Percy said.

"So you went for the crazy route?" Thalia said laughing.

"More suicidal," Percy laughed. "Thank gods for Tyson." Thalia shook her head, although Percy's blatant disregard for his life did worry her.

**Annabeth shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.**

"Good," Athena said proudly.

**Bull Number One ran a wide arc, making its way back toward me. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming.**

_What the heck is going on?_ Is the thought that went through many minds. Athena was trying to work out what had happened but she was coming up blank and it was incredibly irritating.

**Bull Number Two turned to face me, fire sputtering from the gash I'd cut in its side. I couldn't tell if it felt any pain, but its ruby eyes seemed to glare at me like I'd just made things personal.**

Hephaestus smiled although he was worried for his children and he was bit upset that it was his mechanical bulls that were attacking them. He was slightly impressed that Percy could read its emotions so clearly.

**I couldn't fight both bulls at the same time. I'd have to take down Bull Number Two first, cut its head off before Bull Number One charged back into range. My arms already felt tired. I realized how long it had been since I'd worked out with Riptide, how out of practice I was.**

"Great," Poseidon said worriedly.

**I lunged but Bull Number Two blew flames at me. I rolled aside as the air turned to pure heat. All the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs.**

Poseidon read quickly giving no one time to comment his worry growing with each sentence

** My foot caught on something—a tree root, maybe—and pain shot up my ankle. Still, I managed to slash with my sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. It galloped away, wild and disoriented. **

"Ha! Take that!" Hermes cheered.

"It's not over yet," Athena reminded.

"Kill joy," Hermes muttered but looked back toward Poseidon as he continued to read.

**But before I could feel too good about that, I tried to stand, and my left leg buckled underneath me. My ankle was sprained, maybe broken.**

The room was silent as Poseidon read. Thalia and Nico looked at their cousin in worry. He was alive yes. but he had almost died so much it wasn't normal not even in demigod standards.

**Bull Number One charged straight toward me. No way could I crawl out of its path.**

**Annabeth shouted: "Tyson, help him!"**

Athena felt herself release the breathe she was holding and wondered when exactly she had come to care for the boy so much.

**Somewhere near, toward the crest of the hill, Tyson wailed, "Can't—get—through!"**

**"I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp!"**

"Thank the gods Annabeth was there," Thalia said.

"I do that a lot," Percy replied.

"I'm sure. She probably says the same thing about you."

"Don't go getting all mushy on me."

"Not a chance kelp head."

**Thunder shook the hillside. Suddenly Tyson was there, barreling toward me, yelling: "Percy needs help!"**

Thalia, Nico, and Percy smiled; Tyson was the best. Hestia gave a small laugh.

**Before I could tell him no, he dove between me and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.**

**"Tyson!" I yelled.**

"He'll be fine."

"I know that now but then I didn't."

**The blast swirled around him like a red tornado. I could only see the black silhouette of his body. I knew with horrible certainty that my friend had just been turned into a column of ashes.**

**But when the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched. The bull must've been as surprised as I was, because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "BAD COW!"**

This broke the tension and everyone was laughing. "Yeah go Tyson! Kick the cows butt!" Hermes and Apollo cheered.

**His fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. Two small columns of flame shot out of its ears. Tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminum foil. The bull's face now looked like a sock puppet pulled inside out.**

Hephaestus frowned. Such a good piece of machinery destroyed but he supposed it was better than a half blood getting killed.

**"Down!" Tyson yelled.**

**The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.**

"One bull down, one to go," Apollo counted down.

**Annabeth ran over to check on me.**

**My ankle felt like it was filled with acid, but she gave me some Olympian nectar to drink from her canteen, and I immediately started to feel better. There was a burning smell that I later learned was me. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off.**

A few people snorted at that.

**"The other bull?" I asked.**

**Annabeth pointed down the hill. Clarisse had taken care of Bad Cow Number Two. **

Ares smirked, "My daughters such a bad a**" he said

**She'd impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear. Now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some kind of merry-go-round animal.**

**Clarisse pulled off her helmet and marched toward us. A strand of her stringy brown hair was smoldering, but she didn't seem to notice. "You—ruin—everything!" she yelled at me.**

"Hello to you too," Percy said causing the demigods around him to snicker.

** "I had it under control!"**

**I was too stunned to answer. Annabeth grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."**

"You and Annabeth had the same reaction. Aww," Thalia cooed in a horrible imitation of Aphrodite.

Percy cringed, "Never do that again." Thalia blushed but laughed it off.

**"Argh!" Clarisse screamed. "Don't ever, EVER try saving me again!"**

Percy smiled. He had saved Clarisse quite a lot since then but she had returned the favor just as often and they now had a sort of friendship thing. Percy wondered how Ares would react to that when they got there.

**"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "you've got wounded campers."**

**That sobered her up. Even Clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command.**

"Good," Athena nodded "that's the sign of a true commanding officer."

**"I'll be back," she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.**

**I stared at Tyson. "You didn't die."**

"Percy."

"I didn't mean it like that; I meant it in a happy way. I was glad he didn't die."

"Yeah but Tyson's young and he won't understand it."

**Tyson looked down like he was embarrassed. "I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you."**

"See?" Thalia said.

"Sorry, can't change it now though."

**"My fault," Annabeth said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would've died."**

Hestia looked a bit worried she had forgotten that Tyson was a monster and that he was now in camp. "You don't think the campers will hurt Tyson do you?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't think Percy would let them." Athena consoled her.

**_"Let _****him cross the boundary line?'" I asked. "But—"**

**"Percy," she said, "have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean ... in the face. Ignore the Mist, and ****_really _****look at him."**

**The Mist makes humans see only what their brains can process ... I knew it could fool demigods too, but...**

"And now finally after 2 chapters of waiting, Percy finally gets it," Nico said, earning him a punch from Percy.

**I looked Tyson in the face. It wasn't easy. I'd always had trouble looking directly at him, though I'd never quite understood why. I'd thought it was just because he always had peanut butter in his crooked teeth.**

Many looked disgusted but Aphrodite looked the worse she leaned against Ares weakly, looking incredibly dramatic as she did so.

**I forced myself to focus at his big lumpy nose, then a little higher at his eyes.**

**No, not ****_eyes._**

**_One _****eye. One large, calf-brown eye, right in the middle of his forehead, with thick lashes and big tears trickling down his cheeks on either side.**

"Just as we thought he's a Cyclops," Athena said.

**"Tyson," I stammered. "You're a ..."**

**"Cyclops," Annabeth offered. "A baby, by the looks of him. Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easily as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."**

"Aww, that's so sad Tysons such a nice boy it's horrible to think about," Hestia said.

**"One of the what?"**

**"They're in almost all the big cities," Annabeth said distastefully. "They're ... ****_mistakes, _****Percy.**

Percy and Thalia flinched. Mistakes. They both knew that feeling.

**Children of nature spirits and gods ... Well, one god in particular, usually ... **

Everyone looked to Poseidon and he shrugged. Artemis rolled her eyes at Poseidon.

Apollo smirked, "Can you blame him? I mean water spirits are hot."

"He's married he shouldn't be doing anything," Hera stated, glaring towards Apollo.

"Yeah but if he didn't, Percy wouldn't be born and World War 3 would be started and if Tyson wasn't born then Percy would have died and the world would have gone to shit, so I say go for it Uncle P." The women rolled their eyes and some of the males laughed.

"Can you say run on sentence?" Thalia whispered.

**and they don't always come out right. No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."**

"Jeezus Annabeth say that right in front of the big lug he's probably worried and scared now."

**"But the fire. How—"**

**"He's a Cyclops." Annabeth paused, as if she were remembering something unpleasant. **

"I'm guessing she's had a bad run in with a Cyclops."

"When she never leaves the camp."

"Maybe it was during the summer when she went home," one of the gods suggested.

"No," Hestia said. "It has to be something more deeply rooted in her past."

**"They work the forges of the gods. They ****_have _****to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you."**

**I was completely shocked. How had I never realized what Tyson was?**

"Because you're slow."

**But I didn't have much time to think about it just then. The whole side of the hill was burning. Wounded heroes needed attention. And there were still two banged-up bronze bulls to dispose of, which I didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins.**

Scattered laughter filled the air the tension in the room was gone and the danger had ended.

**Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."**

The gods looked at each other in shock, especially Hades. What was he doing at the camp?

Jason, Nico, Thalia, and Hazel all looked confused. Who?"

**"Tantalus?" I asked.**

**"The activities director," Clarisse said impatiently.**

"Chiron's the activity director." Apollo said confused "Did we skip a chapter because I'm confused?"

"If you'd shut up and listen you might not be confused," Artemis bit out.

**"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."**

**Clarisse made a sour face. "Argus got fired. You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."**

"That's for sure," Apollo muttered. Artemis glared and Apollo rolled his eyes.

**"But Chiron ... He's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be ****_gone. _****What happened?"**

"That's what we'd all like to know," Athena whispered to herself.

**"****_That _****happened," Clarisse snapped.**

**She pointed to Thalia's tree.**

Everyone turned to look at Thalia who suddenly looked nervous at all the attention.

**Every camper knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and two other demigods named Thalia and Luke had come to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters. When they got cornered on top of this hill, Thalia, a daughter of Zeus, had made her last stand here to give her friends time to reach safety. As she was dying, her father, Zeus, took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.**

The god and demigods who didn't know what was happening all leaned in (all except Thalia and Percy; Nico never got told the full story he just knows the basics.)

**But now, its needles were yellow.**

The tension in the air rose.

**A huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. In the center of the trunk, three feet from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.**

"Someone poisoned it," Hestia gasped. Zeus looked furious as well as worried for his daughter.

Thalia waved off the worried stares, "Don't worry about me. I couldn't feel a thing while I was in the tree."

Perseus was incredibly pissed, he hoped whoever it was got their butts kicked. He may not have known Thalia for long but she was his sister and he'd be damned if he let anyone hurt her.

**A sliver of ice ran through my chest. Now I understood why the camp was in danger. The magical borders were failing because Thalia's tree was dying.**

Nico and Jason both looked at Thalia in worry. She couldn't die, she just couldn't.

**Someone had poisoned it.**

The room was silent. There was no joke from Apollo or Hermes about the dramatic way the chapter had ended, just silence as everyone took the information in. Apollo looked around and saw how uncomfortable Thalia looked with all the attention so he figured now was time for a dumb comment. He smiled, knowing just what to say.

"I listened, Arty but I'm still confused."

"Ugh!" Artemis growled in frustration. "Apollo you're an idiot and don't call me Arty." Thalia let out a sigh of relief as the stares turned to the two squabbling siblings, she couldn't help but smile when Apollo threw her a wink.

Poseidon rolled his eyes and passed the book to Demeter.

AN: and a quick word to everyone… no Thalia will not have a relationship with anyone, not Nico, not Apollo not anyone she's a hunter of Artemis so no just no to any romantic suggestions I have received for her. Now then continuing on thanks so much for all your wonderful reviews I do have an announcement to make I have gotten the help of Madness to My Methods **(Hi!)** to help me out in the grammar part of this story so to all those who have been bugging me about my grammar happy Christmas or whatever the heck you celebrate! In addition to that she (I'm just assuming you're a girl if I'm wrong I'm so so sorry I just tend to assume most people are girls because I'm a girl anyway…) **(I am indeed a girl.) **will also be helping me edit my previous story so new edited chapters will be going up for that! HOORAY so every one of you grammar nuts out there should be grateful to her :) REVIEW… please … pretty please with bananas on top (fun fact- when asked most Americans say banana is their favorite smelling fruit) REVIEW!


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